CHAPTER IX.

IN SIGHT OF HOME.

IT was well that the visit to the dear old home which I described in my last chapter had been so delightful to the twins, for it was the only one they were able to pay for a long time. When the Maid of Athens came back from her next voyage Mrs. Mayne was very ill. The tendency which had caused her doctor to forbid her going to sea again increased very

much, and she was becoming a confirmed invalid. Katie was so necessary to her, that the girl never dreamed of leaving her; and Bryan would not go without Katie, feeling that the few weeks of his stay at home made all the brightness of her life. Yet Katie's life was far from being unhappy. She had got over her terror of the sea;

the wind no longer kept her awake all night, as it did at first. She had plenty to do, and was conscious that she was very useful to her aunt. A bright, cheery, tender nurse she made,-patient and quick-witted, and above all, unselfish; so unselfish, that it never occurred to her that she was giving up many pleasures to stay with her charge. 'Poor Aunt Cassie can't be left alone,' she said, and that was all about it.

And so the months grew into years, and Bryan and the Captain went and came, until at last the twins celebrated their sixteenth birthday in a very quiet way, and had a great talk in the little garden behind their uncle's house. 'What a time it is since we've been home, Bryan! You must go, dear, without me. It is too hard upon

father and mother never to see you.'

'What did I say the last time you said that?' inquired Bryan sternly.

'You said you'd take a rope's end to me if I said it again; much I care for you and your rope's end. You ought to go, Bryan.'

Sorry to hear it, dear. Because it's painful to find one's mind made up not to do what one ought. Father and mother understand how it is very well, and next time I'm at home perhaps Aunt Cassie will be better.'

'Ah, Bryan, I wonder will that ever be? Is it not odd that Uncle Jack does not give up his profession and stay at home with her?'

'He would if he could, gladly; but his agreement won't be up for two years, and if he got released he would forfeit half his pension, which he cannot afford to do, because poor Aunt Cassie ought to have every comfort. Besides, he will persist in thinking of me, although I have begged him not. He says he made himself responsible

for me. hold on.'

Between these two reasons he thinks it right to

'And if he thinks it right, he'll do it,' said Katie. 'He never talks much about it, but he always does it.'

'He's a brick!' quoth Bryan. Except father, I don't know so good a man. Why, I've met captains of other ships, some of them at least, who never open their mouths without swearing; their language would make your hair stand on end till you were like a porcupine; and never once have I heard my Captain swear. His men give it up too, though he never jaws them about it; but then he never lets it pass, and they see that it vexes him. And they do love him, every man of them. There's never any fighting on board the Maid, nor any drinking either. Even on shore they keep sober to please him. And I can tell you, Katie, half the accidents in the Channel arise from the ships just out of port being drunk,-the men, I mean; sometimes every man on board drunk, and no proper look-out kept, so that they run into each other, and run on the Tuskar Rocks, off the Irish coast, in spite of the light upon it!'

Oh how dreadful, Bryan! Yet Uncle Jack takes a glass of grog after dinner.'

A

'Yes; and the men have their allowance, of course. fellow we met at Buenos Ayres once,-Captain Salter of the North Star,-he's a temperance man, at least he's a total abstinence man, and he urged Uncle Jack to become one too; but uncle said, "No, no, Salter, I don't see the sense of it. God has given us a good gift, and He means us to use it. I'm not going to throw it back to Him, and tell Him by so doing that I think He either made a mistake or set a trap for me. I'll take what I

need, and no more, and that's temperance, my boy. You're just as intemperate as the other fellows who take too much." Captain Salter was very angry, and said he'd pray for uncle, that he might be brought to his way of thinking. Uncle said, "Thank you; Salter, a prayer won't do any harm; only, when you're about it, pray that we may both be led right. That's better than asking that I may be of your mind; for as you're not the Pope, old fellow, I suppose you don't think it impossible that you may be wrong." Captain Salter was so angry.'

'Well, he had no right to be, then. I'm sure uncle said nothing that ought to have vexed him.'

'I thought not too. But I've always remarked this: When a man takes up a notion, like that about total abstinence, you know, that he has almost made up for himself instead of getting it in the Bible, he thinks everyone ought to see with his eyes, and if you don't you're a fool, or worse. Katie,' continued Bryan, with a somewhat sudden change of topic, we haven't measured ourselves this time since I came home.'

'No; but come along and we'll do it now. I'm afraid I haven't grown,-I know by my gown.'

Away they flew to the dining-room, behind the door of which a series of nicks, with dates pencilled above them, recorded their growth for three years; the first having been made on their thirteenth birthday, which took place soon after their arrival in that house. They had grown immensely during that year, and were quite proud of their height. But, alas! since then the growth had been very gradual; once or twice, indeed, no fresh nicks had been necessary. And to-day they received a cruel shock. For the third time there was no growth to record. Five feet four they were, and seemed inclined to remain. Most of

the family being tall, the pair felt a little ashamed of this, and gazed ruefully at one another.

'It don't matter for me,' said Katie; but I wish, Bryan, that you could grow, if it was only three inches. Uncle Jack is five feet seven, and he is not a tall man. I wonder what you could eat that would make you grow?'

If I took bear's grease instead of butter,' suggested Bryan saucily.

'It's no laughing matter,' replied Katie. Rob was five feet nine at sixteen; and Jack is taller now than we are. O Bryan, you'll be the smallest of them all!'

"The mind's the measure of the man," my dear,' quoted Bryan grandly, and my mind is immense,-colossal, in fact!'

Katie laughed, but then said pensively :

'Only three inches!'

Certainly, Katie; anything to please you. I'll ask Aunt Cassie to lay in a lot of bear's grease at once; and perhaps a bath of that other thing-Rowland's Macassarwould be useful! No, Katie; seriously, I don't think we shall grow any more. But I have a suggestion to make. We always take off our shoes to get our exact height; now, as we never walk about barefoot, our real heightwhat every one will always see-is more by the height of the heels of our shoes than that marked upon the doorpost. Let us therefore, my sister, measure ourselves in our shoes, once, and once only. And let us then try our luck no more, unless we feel quite sure that we have grown considerably.'

Katie laughed heartily, and the plan was at once acted upon. And when that evening Uncle Jack saw the record, and remarked:

'Grown nearly an inch, have you? well, I didn't think