"'Rule, Britannia!'--Ay, that lady is worth a thousand of the bigger and smarter one, and the old one too, if a poor man may think so.--'Britannia rule the waves.'--Hoy, hoy! where did this sloop come from, that I did not see her before? She's waiting for an early cargo of chalk, I'll be bound; but it is odd I did not see her before, only that she lies so close under, one could not see without looking over. 'And come again in an hour,' says she, 'or sooner, if anything happens.' I wonder how the hour goes.--'Britons never shall be slaves!'--If I had my mother's old watch, now! Bless her! she's now asleep, I suppose, in the bed with the green checked curtains. She says she thinks of me in her prayers, and has all the sea before her as she goes to sleep, and me marching above it, helping to guard the nation.--'Britannia rule the waves!'--It is only a fair turn for me to think of her when she is asleep, as I hope she is now. Lord! how she used to beat me! and all, as she says now, for tenderness, to make a great man of me. To be sure, I never guessed it at the time.--'Britons never shall be slaves! Never! never!' I don't know that I had not best walk; it is so different sitting here from what it is when the sun is out, platting straw for my hat. It is time I had a new hat; I thought I saw the lady glancing at it. Think of her taking notice of such little things! Kind heart! 'Come again within the hour,' says she, 'and sooner, if anything happens.' That's she looking out, I warrant, where there is a little bit of light from the window. There! 'tis gone. 'Tis the will of Providence that she should notice me so. I wish she knew how my mother thinks of me: but that is no doing of mine, either; it is the will of Providence too; and I doubt whether anybody is so happy as, by the will of Providence, I am, with my mother, and the people here all so harmless to me, and the lady! And it is something to see such a bright sea as this, so like what I saw in the show-box at Weyhill fair, when my mother treated me, then a young boy. I am sure everybody is wonderfully kind to me. I wonder how the hour goes. It is bitter cold, to be sure; and I think yon bit of shelter is best, after all.--'Britons never, ne--ver----'"