Never, indeed, had the family of Merrys been in a greater commotion than we had the satisfaction of throwing them into by our arrival. It was the holidays, and all my brothers and sisters were at home. Out rushed my father and mother, and Bertha and Edith and Winifred, while my brothers Cedric and Athelstane, and Egbert and Edwin, hurried up from various quarters, and every servant in the house was speedily collected, and everybody laughed and cried by turns, and the post-boys grinned, and I was kissed and hugged by all in succession--Grey and Spellman coming in for their share; till I bethought me that I would create a still greater sensation; so, when good Mrs Potjam, the housekeeper, was beginning to hug me, as was her wont in days gone by, I shrieked out-- "Oh, dear! oh, my wound! my wound!" My shipmates, seeing the effect produced, imitated my example. "What, wounded, my dear child? What, have you been wounded?" exclaimed my mother and sisters in chorus. "Of course I have; and do you think those deep dimples on Spellman's cheeks--I forgot to introduce him, by the bye. Mr Spellman, midshipman of his Britannic Majesty's frigate Doris--Mr, Mrs, and the Miss and Master Merrys and their faithful domestics--do you think that those deep dimples are natural? No indeed; a shot went through his cheeks--right through--and those are the scars. See how Grey limps--I forgot, I ought to have introduced him. Mr George Grey, also midshipman of his Britannic Majesty's frigate Doris, and my esteemed friend and messmate; and for myself, I can scarcely yet use my arm. So you see we are heroes who have fought and bled for our country." In those days, as there were not so many newspapers as at present, people were compelled to be their own trumpeters more than would now be considered correct. Some also trumpeted over much, knowing that there was not the probability that there is at present of their being found out. This statement of mine increased, as I thought it would, the respect all were inclined to pay us. Dinner was just going on the table, and when we had satisfied our hunger, all our tongues were busily employed in our peculiar styles in recounting our adventures. The butler and footmen often stopped to listen, and not a little forgot their proper duties. One placed an empty dish before my mother, into which the cook had forgot to put the poultry; the butler filled my father's glass with fish soy, and two of the men bolted tilt against each other and capsized the remains of a sirloin of beef over the carpet with which one of them was hurrying off after waiting to listen to the fag end of one of my narratives. Toby Bluff was as busily employed in the servants' hall, and from the broad grins on the countenances of the footmen as they returned to the dining-room, I have no doubt that his narratives were of a facetious character.