ecollected seeing her, as I had, coming on board.

Susan, like a thoughtful woman as she was, would not let the little boy
wear out his clothes, but at once set to work to make him a new suit,
while she carefully laid up those he had had on, with his hat, and the
little picture in the case, to assist, as she said, in proving who he
was should any of his relatives appear. Still time went on, and there
appeared less chance of that than ever.

I spent a very happy time on shore with Susan: as we had no children of
our own, we loved Harry as much as if he was our own son. Still I could
not be idle; had it not been, indeed, for the captain, I should have
been pretty soon pressed and compelled to go to sea, whether I liked it
or not. Susan would have gladly kept me at home, which was but natural;
still, I was too young to settle down in idleness, and should have grown
ashamed of myself; so, as seamen were badly wanted for the navy, I at
last entered, with the captain's advice, on board a fifty-gun ship, the
_Leander_, he promising to use his influence to obtain a boatswain's
warrant for me. While I was serving on board her we had a desperate
action with a French eighty-gun ship, the _Couronne_, when we lost
thirteen killed, and many more wounded, but succeeded in beating her off
and putting her to flight.

Peace came soon after this, and five years passed before I obtained my
warrant as boatswain. The prize-money I had received enabled me in the
meantime to keep Susan and Harry as I wished; and when I became
boatswain she was able to draw a fair sum of money every year. During
those years I spent five months at home, which was a pretty long time
considering what generally falls to the lot of seamen.

Harry had grown into a fine manly boy, and the more I looked at him the
more convinced I felt that he was of gentle birth; he called Susan
mother, and me father, though he knew that we were not his parents. He
had good manners, and, considering his age, a fair amount of learning,
for he used to go up every day to the captain's to receive instruction
from the children's governess. At last the captain considered that he
ought to be sent to school, and arranged that he should go with his own
son, Master Reginald, who was about his age, though Harry was the
strongest, and, I may say, the most manly of the two.

While I was at home I taught Harry as much as he could learn of what I
may call the first principles of seamansh