“You are a good angel, Mr Dicey, to bring me such tidings,” she exclaimed, putting her arms round his neck, and bursting into tears. “My good brave husband! I’ll never forget who it was that told me I should meet him again down here on earth, for I felt sure we should be joined up aloft there.” And the strong-minded energetic woman, who had held out so bravely, never allowing a tear or complaint to escape, sobbed for very joy.
They found Mrs Morley, with Fanny and Emma, just leaving their cottage. “God has indeed been merciful to me,” were the only words Mrs Morley could utter. Fanny unconsciously gave Harry Shafto her hand. “How my dear father will thank you for all the care you have taken of us,” she said. “We can never sufficiently show our gratitude.” Harry kept the hand thus offered him. What Harry said in return it is not necessary to repeat.
As there was but little property to carry away, in a few minutes every individual was ready to embark. Harry Shafto was the last person to leave the shore. The boats, laden with passengers, pulled down the harbour. The sea was smooth, and without accident they, before nightfall, got alongside the “Ranger.”
A bright moon enabled them to put to sea that night, and, the weather continuing unusually fine, within a week they landed in New Zealand.
Harry Shafto gained his well-earned promotion, and in two years became a commander and the husband of Fanny Morley.
A remittance sent out by Mr Nicholas Steady, when he heard of the loss which the Diceys had suffered from the wreck of the “Crusader,” enabled Charles to commence his career as an emigrant. His nearest neighbour was Mr Paget, who, it surprised few to hear, became the husband of his sister Emily. Sergeant Rumbelow got his discharge, and he and his wife settled near them; while Mrs Clagget, who took up her abode with her relatives in the town, paid them frequent visits, and never failed to tell all the news of the place, which she detailed with her accustomed volubility. Charles won the heart of Emma Morley, and, when his sister May married Tom Loftus, she became the mistress of his house. Dr Davis settled in their neighbourhood, and was a very constant visitor at the houses of his old friends, not only in cases of sickness, which were rare, but on all festive and other interesting occasions.
Little Bessy, left an orphan, was adopted by Sergeant and Mrs Rumbelow, and, growing up a good, steady girl, married young Broke, who, become a warrant officer, found his way at length to New Zealand, where he ultimately settled.
Willy Dicey is now a post-captain, and Harry Shafto, though still young, an admiral. Ensign Holt sold out of the army, and forming a partnership with Peter Patch, who had got tired of a seafaring life, they became successful settlers at no great distance from their former friends.
The old “Ranger” has long since been laid up in ordinary, and the “Young Crusader,” under the command of Bill Windy, to whom Captain Westerway presented her, traded for many years between the settlements and Australia, till she had gained a comfortable fortune for her owner, who at length settled on shore near the friends his courage and kind heart had gained for him.
The former passengers of the two ships often met at the gatherings of the settlements; and a new generation, which sprang up in their midst, delighted to hear them recount the adventures they met with during their voyages in the “Ranger” and “Crusader.”