Love and sweet kisses, indeed! Jack laughed aloud. Then he read Mary's letter all over again. Then, will it be believed? he kissed it. After this, can you credit it? he placed it in his bosom. What did Jack mean, I wonder? The next letter was a right hearty one, from kind old Mr. Richards. There was a deal of business in it, and a deal that wasn't; but the sentence that pleased Jack best was this: "I'm looking after Gerty. I'm saving her for _you_. Old Keane _may_ sacrifice his daughter to Sir Digby, but there will be two moons in the sky that day, and another in the duck-pond. Keep up your heart, boy. I'm laying the prettiest little trap for Sir Digby ever you saw. Gee-ho! Cheerily does it." Cheerily did do it. All the gloom that poor Flora's kind letter had left in Jack's heart was banished now, and he had begun to sing. He was leaving his room, when he ran foul of Tom Fairlie. Tom was singing too, and smiling. Jack pulled him right into his cabin and shut the door. "What are you all smiles about?" said Jack. "Why are you all smiles?" said Tom. "Had a letter from Flora?" "Heard about Gerty?" Then something very funny or very joyous seemed to tickle the pair of them at precisely the same moment, and they laughed aloud till all the glasses on the swing-table rang out a jingling chorus. "I say, Tom," said Jack at last, "I feel I can fight the French now." "Precisely how I feel. Ha! ha! ha!" "Well, come and dine with me to-night--all alone." And Tom did. CHAPTER XVII. IN A FOOL'S PARADISE. "The boatie rows, the boatie rows, The boatie rows fu' weel; And mickle lighter is the boat When love bears up the creel."--_Old Song._ In the interests of truth, I have now to record that my hero, Captain Jack Mackenzie, formed one of the most ridiculous resolutions any young man could have been guilty of making. It is all very well building castles in the air--indeed, it is rather a pretty pastime than otherwise, and may at times be productive of good; but when it comes to building for one's self, willingly and with wide-open eyes, a whole paradise--fool's, of course--and quietly taking up one's abode therein, the absurdity of the speculation must be apparent to every one.