Waters and Williams, the two
Texas men, looked grimly at each other, and tried not to laugh. Edward
Morris had his attention attracted by the third link in the chain of the
captain's chandelier. Watrous was seized with a convulsion of sneezing.
Nolan himself saw that something was to pay, he did not know what. And
I, as master of the feast, had to say,--
"Texas is out of the map, Mr. Nolan. Have you seen Captain Back's
curious account of Sir Thomas Hoe's Welcome?"
After that cruise I never saw Nolan again. I wrote to him at least twice
a year, for in that voyage we became even confidentially intimate; but
he never wrote to me. The other men tell me that in those fifteen years
he _aged_ very fast, as well he might indeed, but that he was still the
same gentle, uncomplaining, silent sufferer that he ever was, bearing as
best he could his self-appointed punishment,--rather less social,
perhaps, with new men whom he did not know, but more anxious,
apparently, than ever to serve and befriend and teach the boys, some of
whom fairly seemed to worship him. And now it seems the dear old fellow
is dead. He has found a home at last, and a country.
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