He had now been absent from home for four years, and his mother told him that he would scarcely recognize Aggie, who was now as tall as herself.

Mrs.Walsham said that the girl was almost as interested as she was in his letters, and in the despatches from the war, in which his name had several times been mentioned, in connection with the services rendered by his scouts.
Richard Horton had twice, during James's absence, returned home.

The squire, Mrs.Walsham said, had received him very coolly, in consequence of the letter he had written when James was pressed as a seaman, and she said that Aggie seemed to have taken a great objection to him.

She wondered, indeed, that he could stay an hour in the house after his reception there; but he seemed as if he didn't notice it, and took especial pains to try and overcome Aggie's feeling against him.
While waiting at the mouth of the Saint Lawrence, Admiral Durell had succeeded in obtaining pilots to take the fleet up the river.

He had sailed up the river to the point where the difficult navigation began, and where vessels generally took on board river pilots.