“It does seem, if true, a little more like a return from the dead, than anything I ever heard tell of,” said Mr. Isaac Dobson, who looked and appeared like a man who was walking in a fog. “To think that I may see my brother face to face again! Why, I was a little mite of a chap the day he went away, and there was such a crowd on the dock that I was lifted up to see the ship sail.”
“Be sure, Mr. Dobson, that you get him home by Christmas,” cried back Kate, after they had started for home.
“You may trust me to do my best,” he said, and immediately made preparations to go for his long-lost brother.
After the evidence given, it is quite needless to assure the reader that this man was, indeed, the Captain Dobson of this story.
The happenings of Christmas day came in the following manner:
Very early in the morning, long before day-dawn, Mrs. Dobson, on hospitable thoughts intent, was up and doing.
As soon as it was light, Harry, looking across at the Point, saw the signal flying from the tower room that he knew was placed for him.
“Something’s the matter over at the Point; I’m wanted,” he said to Mrs. Dobson. “But I’ll not be gone an instant more than I can help, and you needn’t save any breakfast for me; I’ll keep my appetite for the coming dinner.”
It was Kate who had signalled for Harry, on learning the night before that in the morning a stranger would come to look at Neptune. Very early she was on the outlook for Harry. Frank had arrived late the evening before, and in his uniform looked in some way unusually brave and fine beside Harry in his much-worn suit, that Kate had again and again reminded him was getting a little too old for dress-up wear; but Harry had only smiled an answer and kept on wearing it. Kate would not have said one word had she not been perfectly certain that Harry was able to afford a new outfit.
“Kittie tells me,” said Harry to Mr. Hallock, whom he sought out, “that Neptune is to be sold, and I have found a buyer for you.”