"Pardon me. How very, very strange!" I said; "I'm at a loss to remember you. You'll forgive me."
"Don't you remember the Poachers' Hollow, and the brig, and Burke, and the Differential?"
Then I knew, and we shook hands heartily. We dined together, and he told me how his change of fortune had come about.
"It all came through that shipwreck," he explained.
"How was that?"
"Well, directly I got home and changed, I sat down and wrote an account of the whole concern in some very gaudy prose, and I drove the pony into the town and handed the letter in at the 'Sentinel' office. My account was printed. Old Mr. Willits—you remember him—sent to the editor to know who had done it, and then sent for me. He was very grumpy and crusty at first, but I explained my position to him simply, and he got very good humoured. He sent me to a tutor for two years and a half; then I won a Trinity scholarship, and scored two or three other things; then I went to the University, and slogged like a slave. Mr. Willits helped me. I did very well in the Tripos—not so well as men who started younger—but still I landed ninth. Now I'm principal of the new college that —— endowed, and I have a very good thing indeed."
So my friend, the rabbit-catcher, became a successful man, and, I am sure, I wished him joy.