ll take
it as a great favour, sir, since you ask me what reward I should like,
if you can let me go and be with him at the hospital, or if that cannot
be, if he may be removed to some lodging where he can be well looked
after until he recovers and is sent back to his own home."

"There may be some difficulty in doing as you propose," replied the
captain. "Mr Saltwell will, however, I have no doubt, try to make a
satisfactory arrangement, for a person behaving as the young Frenchman
has done deserves to be rewarded; but that is not what I meant; I want
you to choose some reward for yourself, and wish you to let me know how
I can best serve you."

"Thank you, sir," answered Bill. "I cannot think just now of anything I
require, though I should be very glad if I could get Pierre sent back to
his family."

"Your parents, perhaps, will be able to decide better than you can do,
then. Your father or mother," observed the captain.

"I have neither father nor mother, sir," answered Bill. "They are both
dead."

"Your relatives and friends might decide," said the captain.

"I have no relatives or friends, nor any one to care for me that I know
of," said Bill, in a quiet voice.

"Then Mr Saltwell and I must settle the matter," said Captain Martin.
"Should you like to be placed on the quarter-deck? If you go on as you
have begun, and let duty alone guide you on all occasions, you will, if
you live, rise in the service and be an honour to it."

Bill almost gasped for breath as he heard this. He knew that the
captain was in earnest, and he looked at him, and then at Mr Saltwell,
but could not speak.

"Come, say what you wish, my lad," said Captain Martin, in an
encouraging tone.

Still Bill was silent.

"You will have opportunities of improving your education, and you need
not fear about being well received by the young gentlemen in the
midshipmen's berth," observed Mr Saltwell. "Captain Martin and I will
make arrangements for giving you an outfit and supplying you with such
funds as you will require, besides which you will come in for a
midshipman's share of prize-money."

The kind way in which the captain and first lieutenant spoke greatly
assisted Bill to find his tongue and to express himself appropriately.

"I am grateful, sirs, for your offer, and hope that I always shall be
grateful. If you think that I am fit to become a midshipman, I will try
to do my duty as such, so I accept your offer with all my he