“When Joe was about twelve years old he was placed in a collegiate school by his adopted father, whose ambition it was to get his son in the naval academy.
“He remained in that school for three years, during which time two members of the small family passed away—Zebedee Wyvil died of yellow fever, while his ship was in port in Havana; and Susan Wyvil succumbed to pulmonary consumption, in her cottage home at Stockton.
“At the end of the third year Joe left the collegiate school. Not that his preparatory course was finished, and not that he wished to leave, but because the quarterly payments for his board and tuition had ceased with his adopted father’s life.
“And though the masters, knowing the case and the circumstances, would have kept him longer, the pride of this son of the hidalgoes would not suffer him to receive the favor.
“You may object that he had already received favors from humbler people, in having been adopted and cared for by the mate of the Falcon. Ah, but that was so different! Old Zebedee Wyvil had seemed like his own father. He had known no other.
“Well, he left the college, and went home to Stockton, to those who seemed like his own people, poor as they were, since they were all he had left.
“He found his cousins, as he called them, still living together, and occupying the old cottage.
“Joseph was now a fine young man of twenty-one, doing a thriving business at his trade, and making a very comfortable home for his young sister Lil, a lovely girl of thirteen, who kept house for him, and to whom he was devotedly attached—yes, so devotedly attached that friends and neighbors all said Joseph Wyvil would never take a wife while that beloved sister remained unmarried and in his home.
“This sister and brother received poor Joe with the most affectionate welcome, making him feel perfectly at home and at ease.
“In return for all this kindness the dark and swarthy descendant of the Castilians fell desperately in love with the fair-skinned, blue-eyed and flaxen-haired child of the Saxons. He made such ardent and persistent love to the little maid that Lil grew frightened and fled his company, yet never complained of him to her big brother—the little angel! I mean she—Lil—was the little angel, you will all please to understand, and not the big brother, though he was a good fellow enough.