Hawkins," he recovered from the disasters of his last missionary voyage, did valiant service for the Queen in the fight with the Invincible Armada, and became knighted therefor. He was promoted to the office of Treasurer of the Navy, was much consulted in maritime affairs, was sent with Sir Francis Drake against the Spaniards in the West Indies, was unsuccessful in the expedition, and died at sea. Whereupon Mrs. Hawkins wept and prayed, and said she always knew that an evil star was to hang over him since those dreadful missionary voyages, for which she hoped God would forgive him before the coming of the great day. And for this forgiveness she spent the rest of her life in making supplication, and died happily under the assuaging influence of Doctor Pomp's powders and the brightening hopes of a benevolent and pious mind. As for Bessie, she has enough to do at present in bringing up those four boys, and we cannot help sympathizing with her in such a charge. How will they turn out, and what will become of them? What use will they make of their teeth, now they are all fairly and safely through? Will they use them for the purposes intended, or will they gnash with them upon Spaniards, or, what is worse and more inexcusable, upon mankind in general? Will they turn the world upside down and downside up, as they do the nursery and the parlor, or will they help set the world at rights, which certainly needs righting if ever a world did? Alas! we cannot tell; for we have no horoscope which we can cast, and we and Bessie must wait anxiously for your devel opments, O John, Henry, William, and Richard! One thing is certain, and it is a very important thing in juvenile education,-ye never will be lacking in external order and purification so long as Katreen van der Speigle has charge of the kitchen and the laundry, and trundles the hydraulic engine. 23 PART III. THE PILGRIM. "I vow to God I would sooner bring myself to put a man to immediate death for opinions I disliked, and so get rid of the man and his opinions at once, than to fret him with a feverish being, tainted with the jail-distemper of contagious servitude."- Burke. "We read of faith and purest charity In statesman, priest, and humble citizen. WORDSWORTH. |