During more than two years, while Harry and Laura were rapidly advancing in education, they received many interesting letters from Frank, expressing the most affectionate anxiety to hear of their being well and happy, while his paper was filled with amusing accounts of the various wonderful countries he visited; and at the bottom of the paper, he always very kindly remembered to send them an order on his banker, as he called uncle David, drawn up in proper form, saying, “Please to pay Master Harry and Miss Laura Graham the sum of five shillings on my account. Francis Arthur Graham.”

In Frank’s gay, merry epistles, he kept all his little annoyances or vexations to himself, and invariably took up the pen with such a desire to send cheerfulness into his own [210] ]beloved home, that his letters might have been written with a sun-beam, they were so full of warmth and vivacity. It seemed always a fair wind to Frank, for he looked upon the best side of every thing, and never teazed his absent friends with complaints of distresses they could not remedy, except when he frequently mentioned his sorrow at being separated from them, adding, that he often wished it were possible to meet them during one day in every year, to tell all his thoughts, and to hear theirs in return, for sometimes now, during the night watches, when all other resources failed, he entertained himself, by imagining the circle of home all gathered around him, and by inventing what each individual would say upon any subjects he liked, while all his adventures acquired a double interest, from considering that the recital would one day amuse his dear friends when their happy meeting at last took place. Frank was not so over-anxious about his own comfort, as to feel very much irritated and discomposed at any privations that fell in his way, and once sitting up in the middle of a dark night, with the rain pouring in torrents, and the wind blowing a perfect hurricane, he drew his watch-coat round him, saying good humouredly to his grumbling companions, “This is by no means so bad! and whatever change takes place now, will probably be for the better. Sunshine is as sure to come as Christmas, if you only wait for it, and in the meantime we are all more comfortably off than St. Patrick, when he had to swim across a stormy sea, with his head under his arm.”

Frank often amused his messmates with stories which he had heard from uncle David, and soon became the greatest favourite imaginable with them all, while he frequently endeavoured to lead their minds to the same sure foundation of happiness which he always found the best security of his own. He had long been taught to know that a vessel might as well be steered without rudder or compass, as any [211] ]individual be brought into a haven of peace, unless directed by the Holy Scriptures; and his delight was frequently to study such passages as these: “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour.”

[212]
]CHAPTER XV.
AN UNEXPECTED VOYAGE.

Full little know’st thou, that hast not tried,

How strange it is in “steam-boat” long to bide,—

To fret thy soul with crosses and with cares,

To eat thy heart through comfortless despairs,

To speed to-day—to be put back to-morrow—

To feed on hope—to pine with fear and sorrow.