The stranger laughed, and seating himself on the grass, drew Jack down beside him.
"Quite big; I thought you might be eight. Having told me this much I must hear a little more. I'm getting interested. May I hear your name?"
"Jack—Jack Stephens; but here they always call me Jack, the Englishman, 'cause father's a captain in the English Navy."
"Ah! I felt somehow that we should be friends. Shake hands, Jack, the Englishman, for I'm an Englishman, too. I've not been long in the colony," and Jack's small hand was almost lost in the palm of his new friend.
"And what does the little girl call herself? I think she has found breath enough to tell me."
Eva lifted a round face dimpled with smiles to the questioner. His deep resonant voice and kindly smile inspired confidence.
"Eva," she said.
"And the rest? You must be something besides Eva," but Eva stood staring at him, not quite understanding the form in which he had put his question. Jack gave her a little nudge. "Tell him, Eva, that your mother is Mrs. Kenyon."
A quick change passed over the face of the listener; the humour of it resolved itself into an earnest gravity.
"Kenyon!" he repeated quickly. "It's a name I know something of. Do father and mother live anywhere near here, Eva? I would rather like to go and see them, if I might."