companion; and these were the moments that stung him into longing to
flee to the river, and lose the sense of shame among common sailors:
but there was always some good angel to hold him back from desperate
measures--chiefly just then, the love between us three brothers, a
love that never cooled throughout our lives, and which dear old
Griff made much more apparent at this critical time than in the old
Win and Slow days of school. That return of his enlivened us all,
and removed the terrible constraint from our meals, bringing us
back, as it were, to ordinary life and natural intercourse among
ourselves and with our neighbours.



CHAPTER VI--THE VALLEY OF HUMILIATION



'But when I lay upon the shore,
Like some poor wounded thing,
I deemed I should not evermore
Refit my wounded wing.
Nailed to the ground and fastened there,
This was the thought of my despair.'

ABP. TRENCH.

Clarence's debut at the office was not wholly unsuccessful. He
wrote a good hand, and had a good deal of method and regularity in
his nature, together with a real sense of gratitude to Mr.
Castleford; and this bore him through the weariness of his new