“I had a praying mother; when I was younger than you I was torn from her, and carried away by the Indians. I never forgot her words; in the great woods, all alone, they came to mind, and through them I sought and found the Lord.”
After parting with the boys, he seemed prostrated, fell into a doze, and passed away without a struggle.
A few days after, Uncle Jonathan Smullen died, from decay of nature—a very clever man, and kind neighbor; and it was said of him, he never did anybody any harm; but Uncle Isaac was missed, and mourned by the whole community. The seed of good principles he had sown in the minds of young men kept coming up for years after he was in his grave, and was resown by those who received it from them, a hundred times; nor will their influence ever cease.
CHAPTER XX.
A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE.
SCARCELY had Uncle Isaac been committed to the earth, when the nephew he had so longed to see arrived in the Casco, sick with the fever and ague. As the owners wished to send the vessel with despatch to one of the French West India islands, they, at Isaac’s request, put Ezra Aldrich in her as master. He was a native of the place, and relative of Isaac, but never much liked by his schoolmates, being an overbearing fellow.
In his youth he went two voyages with Captain Rhines, and afterwards in English ships from Liverpool to Halifax.
“I don’t see,” said Captain Rhines, “what Isaac wants to put him in her for.”