“Very odd; how reserved some boys are! I declare I was vexed that it had gone out of his head; though I thought it might be for the best. You know I was not born to this place. I never dreamt of it till my poor brother Sam’s little boy went off in a fever six years ago, and we had to settle down here. Before that, we meant my eldest to follow my own profession; but when he seemed to take to the soil so kindly, I thought, after all, he might make the happier squire for never having learnt the smell of salt water, nor the spirit of enterprise; but if it were done already, the first choice is due to him. You are sure?” “Ask the girls.” He leant back and shouted out the question, “Sue! do you know whether Sam wishes to go to sea?” “There’s nothing he ever wished so much,” was the answer. “Then why didn’t he say so?” “Because he thought it would be no use,” screamed Susan back. “No use! why?” “Because Hal says Admiral Penrose promised him. O Papa! are you going to take Sam?” “Oh dear! we can’t get on without him!” sighed Elizabeth. “Are you sure he would like it?” said her father. “I thought he never cared to hear of the sea.” “He can’t bear to talk of it, because it makes him so sorry,” said Susan. “And,” cried Bessie, “he burnt his dear little ship, the _Victory_, because he couldn’t bear to look at it after you said _that_, Papa.” “After I said what?” “That he was not smart enough to learn the ropes.” “Very silly of him,” said the Captain, “to take in despair what was only meant to spur him on. I suppose now I shall find he has dawdled so much that he couldn’t get through an examination.” This shut up the mouths of both the girls, who were afraid that he might not, since they saw a good deal of his droning habits over his lessons, and heard more of Hal’s superior cleverness. Miss Fosbrook ventured to say, “You may expect a great deal of a boy who works on a pure principle of obedience.” “You think a great deal of that youngster,” said the Captain, highly gratified. “It is the first time I ever knew a stranger take to him.” “I did not take to him as a stranger. I thought him uncouth and dull. I only learnt to love and respect him, as I felt how perfectly I might rely on him, and how deep and true his principles are. If the children have gone on tolerably well in your absence, it is because he has always stood by me, and his weight of character has told on them.” Captain Merrifield did not answer at once; he bit his lip, then blew his nose, and cleared his throat, before he said, “Miss Fosbrook, you have made me very happy; it will make his mother so. She always rated him so high, that I half thought it was a weakness for her eldest son; but there! I suppose he was down-hearted about this fancy of his, poor boy; and that hindered him from making the most of himself. I wonder what sort of a figure he is cutting before his uncle!”