him. You know why he is here, of course?"

"No, I don't, papa. You are getting so mysterious that you never tell us

anything now," replied Dolly. "I only know that he was in the navy, and

now he is in a grammar school. The last time I saw him he was about a

yard high."

"He is a good bit short of two yards now," said the Admiral, smiling as

he thought of him, "but quite tall enough for a sailor, Dolly, and the

most active young man I ever saw in my life, every inch of him sound and

quick and true. I shall think very little of your judgment unless you

like him heartily; not at first, perhaps, because he is so shy, but as

soon as you begin to know him. I mean to ask him to come down as soon

as he can get a holiday. His captain told me, when he served in the

Diomede, that there was not a man in the ship to come near him for

nimbleness and quiet fearlessness."

"Then what made him take to his books again? Oh, how terribly dull he

must find them! Why, that must be Stonnington church, on the hill!"

"Yes, and the old grammar school close by. I was very near going there

once myself, but they sent me to Winchester instead. It was partly

through me that he got his berth here, though not much to thank me for,

I am afraid. Sixty pounds a year and his rations isn't much for a man

who has been at Cambridge. But even that he could not get in the navy

when the slack time came last year. He held no commission, like many

other fine young fellows, but had entered as a first-class volunteer.

And so he had no rating when this vile peace was patched up--excuse me,

my dear, what I meant to say was, when the blessings of tranquillity

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