My brother's keeper, by Amy Lothrop. By miss Wetherell

"You may well call it an unhappy corner," said Penn; "for if a man is bound to be wretched anywhere, I suppose it is in a prisonship in a hot climate. I escaped pretty well, though."

"From the wretchedness, or the ship?" said Rosalie.

Both, Miss Clyde, I assure you. I'll tell you about it.”

"What nonsense you do talk, Penn," said Thornton. "You came home only three months ago from Europe."

Certainly," said Penn; but that's quite long enough to stay in some places. Have you any idea where I have been since then?"

"Not much," said Thornton. "At Washington and here, suppose."

Tout au contraire," replied Mr. Penn. "I have been at the West Indies, and a prisoner."

"Were you one of the men that ran away with the Bermuda ?” said Rosalie.

My dear Miss Clyde, with your usual acuteness, you have stated the case precisely. In fact, I may say I was the man, the rest being highly gifted with timidity. But I thought a little interlude of running away would be refreshing, even if we were taken again; and was by no means of the opinion, that H.B.M.'s cruisers had a natural right to everything they laid hands on. Holla-who comes here?" .'” said the Shakspearian.

"Enter a fairy at one door,'' And the door softly opened, and Hulda came in. Just enough awake to get off the bed and brush her hair, she had found her way down stairs, and now stood by the door, with her ideas in a most puzzled state.

What do you want, Hulda ?" said her brother.

I want-Rosalie," said the child, abstractedly, and taking another survey of the room.

'The Queen, my dear," said Penn Raynor, walking up to her, "is at present sitting in state upon the sofa. Shall I have the honour of conducting you to her? And by what title will you be made known? Is this the little prime minister?"

What, sir?" said Hulda, raising her childish eyes to his face, while everybody laughed.

You are the Flying Squirrel, my dear, and I am his Majesty's sloop of war, Wild Cat," said Penn, as he gave her one jump to his shoulder; and then carrying her to the sofa, permitted her to kneel in his lap. "Now, who have I got for a prisoner?"

You have got me," said Hulda.

"And it strikes me that I have heard of you before," said Penn. "Isn't my cousin a great friend of yours?"

"I don't know, sir," said Hulda.

Why, yes you do," said Penn, giving her a little shake. "You spent the day with him yesterday, and he was off with you somewhere when I got home.'

"But I was at Mr. Raynor's, yesterday," said Hulda; “and ho isn't your cousin."

He is my cousin."

"Is he?" said Hulda, leaning back, and taking a complete sur

vey of the questioner. "He don't look a bit like you. I love Mr. Raynor very much.'

"Well, so do I," said Penn, who was highly delighted with the unconscious emphasis Hulda had bestowed upon her friend's

name.

"But I thought you were going to tell us of your great adventures," said Thornton, impatiently. And you sit there talking to that child!"

I perceive that you are still subject to your old periodical fits of insanity, Mr. Clyde," said Penn. "When you have sojourned for a short lifetime among the Quakers, you will learn that impatience is one of the useless luxuries of life. Though, indeed, if you had been in our prison-ship- But I was going to tell you about it. You see, my dear Miss Clyde, when I got to Washington, I fell in with some friends-not of the Society, you may be sure-t -that were bound to try their hand at privateering. Of course they invited me to go, and of course I went.'

To benefit the country, or yourself?" said Thornton.

"Whichever might be," said Penn; "and I think, in the long run, we came out about equal. However, when we first started from Baltimore, the thing paid pretty well. We cruised about, took a variety of vessels smaller than ourselves, and had more prisoners than we knew what to do with-which was all very pleasant, except that the prisoners had as good appetites as our

own.

Remarkably inconsiderate of them," said Mr. Clinton.

Yes, it was," said Penn, "when you take into the account that the Flying Squirrel's capacity for provisions was by no means unlimited. It came to this point at last-whether we should all starve together, as human beings, or the upperhand live and the rest go overboard."

"Difficult point to round, that," said Thornton.

"It did look so in the distance," said Mr. Penn; "but, after all, it's astonishing how many points the tide of circumstance carries one round-as our captain poetically expressed it. When we dici reach the point, there was a ship in the offing-an Englishman she looked to be, and was.'

"And she carried you round the point?" said Rosalie.

Precisely, Miss Clyde; round more than one. She was a sloop of war or a frigate-I don't know which,-only I know that she carried four times as many guns as we did. The game was up, of course; but we chose to let the enemy cry checkmate, and so ran. But what could the Squirrel do so far from land? for the storms had driven us out so far, that we were near coming up on the other side. I don't know to this day whether our guns were heard in England or America. But we ran, as I said-skimmed over the water like the cannon ball the Wild Cat sent after us.'

"Did it strike?" said Rosalie.

'Yes, Miss Clyde-it struck us-that if she was going to spit fire at that rate, we had better stop,-just to save her from spontaneous combustion. So we did stop, and gave her as good as she sent.'

"But not quite so suggestive."

"Not quite," said Penn. "Our arguments were not quite so weighty. And you see, the Wild Cat had set her mouth for our poor Squirrel, and what could four guns do against eighteen, after all?"

"So the long and short of it was, that you had to strike your colours," said Thornton.

Even so," said Penn,-"I had that pleasure myself. Struck 'em so they fell overboard too- -gave the Eagle my own choice,death instead of dishonour. But we were all sent to Kingston and cooped up on board the Goree. Such a place!—such bread and such rats!"

"You wished for the Wild Cat again, didn't you, Penn?" said Thornton, laughing.

"I nearly turned one myself," said Penn. "For if the bread was uneatable, that didn't make it pleasant to have rats and cockroaches running over you all night to get at it. I tell you what, I came near hating my ancestors for having come from England.'

"If they had not come you would have been an Englishman yourself," said Rosalie, smiling.

"I don't know about that," said Mr. Penn; "but if I were a Turk I'd have respectable prison ships. Why even the Hindoos put nobody but beggars in the animal asylums-and pay them!" I think you were paid for privateering," said Thornton. "We did not view it in that light," said Penn. In fact, all the light we had was reflected into a focus upon our plan of escape. The States or the bottom of the sea, we soon made up our minds to have one or t'other. It's a pretty enough place there, too," said Mr. Penn, who was warming to his subject; "and bread fruits and cocoa-nuts look very nice, waving about in the wind; but they don't make your sour brown bread any sweeter. I think to people broiling on the Goree's deck, or smothering under her hatches, it was rather tantalizing to think of green trees anywhere. But it strengthened our plans."

"What did you have to do there?" said Thornton. “Anything?” "Not much," said Penn; "what we had was done, I do assure you. Wishing and grumbling was pretty much the whole of it— and then planning. Those of us that were given to swearing kept themselves in good practice; but as I had been brought up by the Quakers I hadn't even that resource. I remember one night I was too melancholy to sleep-or too hot-I forget which; and just as early as the prisoners were allowed to go on deck, up I went.' "Didn't throw yourself overboard, did you?" said Thornton. "That would have answered for either heat or melancholy."

Yes, but it wouldn't have answered for me, though," said Penn, so I only leaned over the side of the ship and wished myself a fish; for the water was still enough to give one the fidgets. Pre sently the rest began to gather about me, and we exchanged a few looks and words as we got a chance, in a kind of desperate way that said we wouldn't wait much longer: which sentiment we all endorsed by flinging our breakfast overboard. "What's that for?" said the boatswain. But we gave him no reply; and after a few

not very sweet words he ordered eleven of the prisoners into the launch to go for water."

66 And you refused to go?" said Thornton.

'No we didn't-we went, with only a look at each other; and the boatswain and two soldiers went along for company. The bay was quite spotted with vessels that morning, but all sleepy, apparently, with the warm day; there was nobody astir. The frigates showed their teeth, and that was all; and the smaller vessels had both crew and cargo stowed away out of sight. Only one, the Bermuda, had her deck lumbered with buoys which she was to take out and lay in the channel; but we rowed on past them all to the shore, and filled our six water casks in less time than they ever were filled before."

And upset them coming back," said Mr. Clinton.

"You would have been a help if you had been there," said Penn. "No-we upset nothing but the calculations of the boatswain; for the minute we were far enough from shore I gave the signal that we had always agreed upon. Squirrel!" I said-and we pounced upon both soldiers and boatswain, and disarmed them in a trice. Then we rowed quietly along to the Bermuda."

"Now you see, Miss Clyde, we had two forts on our right hand and the Bermuda on our left; and beyond the Bermuda lay the sloop of war Nimrod, and the frigates Chaser and Charlemagne, but all, as I said, asleep. So when we reached the Bermuda we boarded her at once, and put her five men under hatches; and in less time than you can think the cables were cut and we pushing out.

"And after that the time seemed long."

"Indeed, yes," said Penn. "I never saw a thing creep so in my life as she did for a few minutes. When we had made a little headway we set the launch adrift, with the boatswain and soldiers and two of our party that didn't bring their courage along, and then overhauled the schooner to see what we had to work with. We knew nothing about the channel, and there was no chart on board; but we found a compass, forty gallons of water, and provisions enough to keep us alive for ten days."

"How about the rats?" said Thornton.

"Never saw one all the time we were in the Bermuda-they were sent to the prison-ships. Well, it was eleven o'clock by the time we were fairly off-sails set and arrangements made; and we threw over all the buoys but one, keeping that till we knew the trim of the vessel. I can't tell you how pleasant it was. The wind was a true American, and favoured us all it could; and we sat on deck and eat some bread that had not been once eaten already, with great satisfaction. I know I looked at my watch, and it was just one o'clock; but as I was replacing it in a leisurely kind of way, that smacked of enjoyment, the wind came sweeping along the deck and brought us the booming of two or three alarm guns.'

"And how did you feel then ?" said Rosalie, as Mr. Penn paused. "Every man was on his feet, this way," said Penn, putting down Hulda and springing up; but nobody spoke. And so we stood for one hour till the Nimrod came in sight. We had nothing but a

foresail, mainsail, and jib, but we made them work as hard as they could still at sundown the vessel was nearer, and seemed to be looming up every minute. As soon as it was dark we took a short tack and sailed off in a different direction, but by eight o'clock there were her lights again shining out as if to look after us; and when the moon was up in the early morning, the Nimrod or something else was after us as hard as ever. We stood and watched for awhile as the day came on-and the Nimrod too, for that matter; and then a bright thought came into my head. 'Rutgers,' said I-(you know him, Thornton, he's one of your cronies); we may just as well capsize ourselves here as to be carried back to Kingston. I vote we throw over this other buoy.' Which we did at once; and only think, Miss Clyde," said Penn, planting himself before her, it trimmed the schooner precisely; and by eight o'clock we had sunk the Nimrod, and she had her hunting ground all to herself!" That was brave," said Rosalie. "And what a pleasant breakfast you must have had.'

'Indeed we did," said Penn. "But that was not all. We were chased several times more coming home, and got away well enough till we neared Cape May; and there was a seventy-four in the channel, two other craft trying to cut us off from the shore, and a pilot boat full of armed Englishmen in chase."

"Then you felt like giving up the ship again," said Mr. Clinton. "We did give it up-it was all we could do," said Penn. just steered for land, and by the time the boat was within pistol shot, we beached our vessel on the Cape, and jumped ashore. Saved ourselves, and lost the Bermuda,―which was a pity, after such a week's voyage in her."

"Lost your prisoners, too," said Thornton.

"Yes, but that didn't matter. They were not worth much. We came pretty near being heroes, though; I tell you what, they made fuss enough for us in Philadelphia. We should have been fêted and feasted till this time, if we could have stayed and nobody else had come along."

"Will you come so far as the next room and take a cup of coffee, Mr. Penn?" said Rosalie, when the little buzz of comment and remark had died away.

"You had better," said Thornton, "for you will get nothing stronger in this house to-night, I warn you.'

"What new freak have you taken up, Thornton?" said one of the guests, with a laugh.

"No freak of mine," he answered emphatically. "What do you think was the last thing on which my Lady Sweetbrier laid her ban?"

"Freaks?" suggested Penn.

"No, truly," said Thornton, "this being one. She has lately found out, by great study and research, that wine was not meant to make glad the heart of man

"Nor oil to make his face to shine," said Penn.

'And, therefore, that men should not drink it," said Thornton, with a slight frown; "and shall not, in her presence."

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