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250 but a prodigal that's come back, thanks to the Lord! a little better than I went." James, who is indeed the long lost son of our good friend John of the Mountain, went on to detail his experiences to Mary, who by turns raised her hands and eyes in wonder and devout thankfulness. The amount of it is, for their joy overflowed all barriers of reserve, he left here ten years ago in despair, because Mary would not marry him, and sailed to the Mediterranean; the poor fellow was taken by the Algerines, and after suffering almost incredibly for six years, he was so happy as to procure his freedom along with some English captives. After his release, he said he could not endure the thought of coming to his father and mother quite destitute; for, as he said to Mary, though he was a wild lad, and had a fancy to follow the sea, her cruelty would not have driven him to leave them, if he had not hoped to get something to comfort their old age with. He wrote them an account of his sufferings, and of an engagement he had made to go to Calcutta in the service of an English merchantman. The letters it seems never reached here. He went to India; many circumstances occurred to advance him in the favour of his employer; his integrity, which, he said, the tears streaming from his eyes, was "all owing to the teachings and examples of his good old parents," and his intelligence, "thanks to his country, which took care to give the poor man learning," occasioned his being employed in the company's service, and sent with some others into the interior of