not more probable--nay, certain--
that the name grew to accommodate the nose? Of course when Major Beak
was born he was a minor, and his nose must have been no better than a
badly-shaped button or piece of putty; but the Major's father had owned
a tremendous aquiline nose, which at birth had also been a button, and
so on we can proceed backwards until we drive the Beaks into that remote
antiquity where historical fact begins and mythological theory
terminates--that period when men were wont, it is supposed, to name each
other intelligently with reference to personal characteristic or
occupation.

So, too, Mr Bright--a hearty good-natured fellow, who drew powerfully
to Major Beak and hated Miss Bluestocking--possessed the vigorous frame,
animated air, and intelligent look which must have originated his name.
But why go on? Every reader must be well acquainted with the characters
of Mr Fiery and Mr Stiff, and Mrs Dashington, and her niece Miss
Squeaker, and Colonel Blare who played the cornet, and Lieutenant Limp
who sang tenor, and Dr Bassoon who roared bass, and Mrs Silky, who was
all things to all men, besides being everything by turns and nothing
long; and Lady Tower and Miss Gentle, and Mr Blurt and Miss Dumbbelle.

Suffice it to say that after a week or two the effervescing began to
systematise, and the family became a living and complex electrical
machine, whose sympathetic poles drew and stuck together, while the
antagonistic poles kept up a steady discharge of sparks.

Then there arose a gale which quieted the machine a little, and checked
the sparkling flow of wit and humour. When, during the course of the
gale, a toppling billow overbalanced itself and fell inboard with a
crash that nearly split the deck open, sweeping two of the quarterboats
away, Mr Blurt, sitting in the saloon, was heard to exclaim:--

"'Pon my word, it's a terrible gale--enough almost to make a fellow
think of his sins."

To which Mrs Tods, who sat beside him, replied, with a serious shake of
her head, that it was indeed a very solemn occasion, and cast a look,
not of undying hate but of gentle appeal at Mrs Pods, who sat opposite
to her. And that lady, so far from resenting the look as an affront,
met her in a liberal spirit; not only admitted that what Mrs Tods had
said was equally just and true, but even turned her eyes upward with a
look of resignation.

Well was it for Mrs Pods that she did so, for her resigned eyes beheld