I spent three days with Captain Frankland's family, and then Jerry and old Surley, who must not be forgotten, accompanied me to my own home. All were there for the Christmas holidays, and what between my dear father and mother's embraces, and my sisters pulling me here and there to get another and another kiss at my well-browned cheeks, and my brother's reiterated and hearty thumps on the back, I was almost in as much danger of being pulled to pieces as I had during any time of the voyage, and had not Jerry been there to draw off the attention of some of the party, I do not know what would have been the result.  Cousin Silas soon afterwards joined us, and remained while the ship was refitting.  We spent a very merry Christmas, and no one seemed tired of hearing us recount our adventures.  Old Surley used to sit at our feet, and he nodded his head and winked his eyes, as much as to say "It is all true, and if I could but speak I would tell you the same story."  I hope that my readers will receive it in as favourable a way as did my family. We had learned many lessons during our trip.  We had been taught to respect other people, their manners, and even their prejudices, and to reflect what we ourselves should have been had we laboured under similar disadvantages, while at the same time we had seen every reason to love Old England more and more, and to be deeply grateful for the numberless inestimable blessings she enjoys.  We had been taught, too, to observe the finger of the Almighty in his wondrous works, and to remark how he has scattered his precious gifts far and wide over the face of the globe for the benefit of his creatures.  Our midnight watches have not been unprofitable.  Often and often in the calm night we have gazed upward at the starlit sky and thought upon God.  We have had time for reflection. We have felt our own unworthiness.  We have asked ourselves the serious question, Do we make a good and complete use of the advantages we possess--of the instruction afforded us--of the great examples set before us--of the Word of God laid freely open for us?  But I might go on for ever asking similar questions.  Happy are those who can make satisfactory answers.  I must conclude by expressing a hope that those who have gone through these pages will have found some of the amusement and instruction which Jerry and I obtained in our--