"At Grayling Cottage, St. Abbs. And you have na heard? Come in, come
in, and I'll tell you all."
About three hours after this the two young men had once more left Glen
Lyle, and were journeying straight, almost as the crow flies, for the
cottage by the sea.
On the evening of the second day, having been directed to the house,
they were walking slowly along the beach.
It was the gloaming hour.
Yonder in the horizon just over the sea shone the gloaming star.
"Just above yon sandy bar,
As the day grows fainter and dimmer,
Lonely and lovely, a single star
Lights the air with a dusky glimmer.
"Into the ocean faint and far
Falls the trail of its golden splendour,
And the gleam of that single star
Is ever refulgent, soft, and tender."
Both young men stopped short at once. There was one figure on the
beach, one solitary female figure.
"It is she," half-whispered Douglas, pressing Leonard's arm.
Then they advanced.
"Effie!"
"Oh, Leonard!"
Next moment she was sobbing on her brother's shoulder. They were tears
of reaction, but they washed away in their flood-gates the sorrow and
the hope deferred of long, dreary years.
"How silly to cry!" she said at last, giving her hand to her brother's
friend with a bonnie blush.
"Right welcome you are, Douglas," she added. "Oh, how glad I am to see
you both!"
"There now, Eff," said her brother, in his old cheery way, "no more
tears; it must be all joy now, joy and jollity."
Douglas ran off home now to see his father, and I pass over the scene of
reunion betwixt Leonard and his parents.
"Dear boy," said his father more than once that evening, "I don't care
for anything now I've got you back, and I don't mind confessing that I
really never expected to see you more."
But in an hour or two in came Captain Fitzroy and Douglas.
Then somehow or other the household horizon took a cheerier tone; there
was such an amount of indwelling happiness and pleasantry about the
honest Captain's face, that no one could have been in his company for
five minutes without feeling the better of it.
About nine o'clock Captain Lyle got up and took down from its shelf a
large volume covered with calfskin. It was,--
"The big ha' Bible, ance his father's pride."
Solemn words were read, solemn words were spoken, and heartfelt was the
prayer and full of gratitude that was said when all knelt down.
Family worship was conducted thus early, lest, as Lyle said, everybody
should get sleepy. But this did not close the evening. For all sat
around the fire long, long after that, and if the whole truth must be
told, the cocks in the farmer's yard hard by had wakened up and begun to
crow when Douglas and his father bade good-night to the cottagers, and
went slowly homewards along the beach.
You see there had been such a deal to talk about.
A day or two afterwards who should arrive at the cottage but Captain
Blunt himself, and with him honest, kindly, rough old Skipper James. It
is needless to say that the latter received a royal welcome.
"We can never, never thank you enough," said Mrs Lyle, "for bringing
back our boys."
"Pooh!" said Skipper James, "my dear lady, that is nothing; don't bother
thanking me, mention me and my old ship in your prayers, when we're on
the sea."
"That I'm sure we will never forget to do."
Lyle and Fitzroy were walking together on the beach about a week after
the wanderers' return.
"I've been trying to get my boy to stay at home now altogether," said
Lyle.
"Well, and I've been trying mine."
"But _mine_ won't; he says he was born to wander, and wander he will."
"Just the same with mine."
"And Leonard has given up his allowance, dear boy! He says he will work
now for his living, and that the seamanship he has learned must stand as
his profession. He is full of hope though, and I fear we'll soon lose
our lads again."
"For a time--yes, for a time. Be cheerful, remember what I prophesied;
all will yet be well, and if they really are born to wander nothing can
prevent them."
"What's that about being born to wander?" said Captain Blunt, coming
quietly up behind them. "Because," he added, "here's another."
"What!" said Captain Lyle. "Are you going to sea again?"
"I've just left your lads," replied Blunt, "and I've made them an offer
that they both jump at. You see, I've made a bit of money, and though I
have been in the merchant service all my life, I can't say that ever I
have seen the world in a quiet way. Had always, in port, to look after
my men and cargo, and hardly ever could get a week to myself. So now,
in a barque of my own, I'm going round the world for a bit of an outing,
and your boys are going with me. I've offered them fair wage, and,
depend upon it, I'll do my best to make them happy, and I won't come
back without them. What say you two fathers?"
"What can we say," said Lyle, grasping Captain Blunt's rough horny hand,
"but thank you?"
"And boys will be boys," added Fitzroy, with a ringing laugh that
startled the very sea-birds.
Two months after this our heroes had bidden their relations once more
adieu, and were afloat on the wide Atlantic.
But before this the whole party had gone to the Clyde, where Captain
Blunt's barque was building, and in due form, with all due ceremony,
Effie, with a blush of modesty and beauty on her sweet young face, had
christened the ship.
And her name was the _Gloaming Star_.
Book 3--CHAPTER ONE.