After some trouble, I persuaded him, as a matter of duty, to go home, and obtained for him a year's leave of absence. He left Shanghai in his brother's ship, and went to Iloilo, where the vessel loaded and sailed for America. When the vessel was well on her way towards the Cape of Good Hope, they had one very calm day, and a short distance from them was another vessel showing the American flag. The two brothers agreed to have a boat lowered and to pull over to the stranger for a short visit. This was done, and to their great surprise, when they got on board, they found that the captain was their own older brother. The two captains had been employed in different ports and on different voyages, and had not met each other in fifteen years, and the oldest and the youngest had never met before. A Little Railway Experience. By way of a change, I will tell you of a little railway experience I once had. During the Civil War in America, I had occasion to go from New York to Boston on important business, and I was there some days. When my business was ended I decided on leaving Boston by the midnight train. Each hotel had its coach to convey guests to the depot or railway station. I took my seat in the coach, and was joined by a gentleman also going to New York. We each got our railway tickets, and sat side by side in the same carriage, or "car," and after some little time we got into conversation, and when my companion found that I was a "seafaring man," no one could have been more astonished than he was. He looked at me and said, "My dear sir, you look to be an intelligent sort of man, and you tell me that you go to sea." I said, "Yes, and why not?" "Well," said he, "I don't see how any man possessed with any common sense and reason could ever be such a fool as to go to sea." I said that possibly that was the reason for my going to sea--just simply a want of good sense on my part. But it suited me very well, and I should like to know what objections he had against a sea life. "Why, sir, supposing you are in a gale and a fire breaks out on board, what are you going to do? You have no back door to escape through?" "Well, we may be able to leave in the boats." "But you can't do it in a terrible storm." "Well, then, we will do the best we can, and do as sailors often are compelled to do, trust in Providence. But for my part, I don't see that we run more risks in a gale at sea than you do in the cities or than we do now on the rail. What is to prevent us from having a smash-up before morning?" "Well, now, my good sir, I beg of you don't go to sea any more, but just come out to Iowa and buy a nice farm and settle down ashore. You can buy a nice farm with all improvements at from three thousand to five thousand dollars."