As for gratitude, affection, disinterested kindness, and friendship, 'tis all a humbug! RELY ON YOURSELF.

Fight the battle of life alone.

If you conquer, you will find friends, kind friends, disinterested friends.
Ha, ha, ha! Cheer up, my boy." I still clung to a hope that there was some mistake, perhaps a blunder on the part of the servant who delivered the message, and that I should receive a note or a visit the next day which would set the matter right.
But neither note nor visit came.

In a few days the schooner Mary left Baltimore on the return to Newbern.
On the passage, the captain was testy, petulant, and unhappy.

The prophecy of Cochran had taken a stronger hold on his mind than he was willing to acknowledge.