The simple yet pathetic story accounted for all the mystery that, in her imagination, enveloped the life and death of Captain Wegg.

But--stay! "How did your father die ?" she asked, softly.
"Through a heart trouble, from which he had suffered for years, and which had obliged him to lead a very quiet life," was the reply.

"That was one of the things which, after my mother's death, helped to sour his disposition.

He could not return to the sea again, because he was told that any sudden excitement was likely to carry him off; and, indeed, that was exactly what happened." "How is that, sir ?" asked the Major.
"It is more difficult to explain than the first of the story," replied the boy, thoughtfully gazing through the window; "perhaps because I do not understand it so well.

Our simple life here never made much of an inroad into my father's modest fortune; for our wants were few; but Captain Wegg was a poor man of business, having been a sailor during all his active life.