A flush covered the boy's face, as he
received the locket, and understood from whence it came. He stood
for some minutes, wholly abstracted, as if under the spell of some
vivid memory.
Tears at length filled his eyes, and glistened on the long fringed
lashes. Then there was a single, half-repressed sob--and then,
grasping the locket tightly in his hand, he turned from Jacob, and,
without a word, walked hastily away.
When the boy was sixteen, Captain Allen took him to sea. From that
period for n any years, both of them were absent for at least
two-thirds of the time. At twenty-five, John took command of a large
merchant-man, trading to the South American coast, and his father,
now worn down by hard service, as well as by years, retired to his
home in S----, to close up there, in such repose of mind as he could
gain, the last days of his eventful life. He died soon after by
apoplexy.
Prior to this event, his son, the younger Captain Allen, had brought
home from Cuba a Spanish woman, who took the name of his wife. Of
her family, or antecedents, no one in our town knew anything; and it
was questioned by many whether any rite of marriage had ever been
celebrated between them.
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