e on
board, from the captain to the smallest powder-monkey, had been
whistling for a breeze to carry her back to look after her prizes and
consorts, no breeze came.

Dick had been the busiest of the busy. He now appeared, with no small
pride in his countenance, leading by the hand a little boy dressed in a
seaman's jacket and trowsers, his shirt-collar turned down, and a little
tarpaulin hat stuck on the top of his curly head. He went boldly aft,
till he reached the captain, who, with several officers, was standing on
the quarterdeck.

"Touch your hat, Charley," said Dick. Charley obeyed promptly with a
true sailor's manner, showing that his guardian had, according to his
own ideas, commenced his education, and had at all events taught him to
be obedient.

"Please, sir, this here little chap is Charley Laurel, as I brought
aboard t'other night," began Dick. "Some wanted to call him one name,
some another. We called him Charley, sir, after Mr Slings, the
boatswain, who offered to stand godfather; and 'cause, as I may say, he
belongs to all of us, we have given him the name of Laurel, after the
old barky, if that's agreeable to you, sir."

"I have no objection to any name you may give him," answered the
captain; "but I warn you that we shall have before many weeks to restore
him to his friends, when we shall find out his proper one, and I have no
doubt they will be glad to reward you for the care you have taken of
him."

"I want no reward, sir, except perhaps a glass of grog to drink their
healths, and small thanks we will give them if they take him from us.
It will be hard to lose him as well as our other booty, especially when
he takes to us so kindly. To my mind, he will be much better off with
us than among them niggers, who will just spoil him with sugar-cane and
letting him have his own way. Besides, sir, the black woman gave him to
me, and unless you says so, we will not hand him over to them."

Dick slapped his leg as he spoke, as a clencher to his assertion, and in
his eagerness was going to use a strong expression, when, recollecting
that he was on the quarterdeck, and to whom he was speaking, he stopped
short.

"Well, my man," said the captain, good-naturedly, not offended with
Dick's freedom, "make the most of the little fellow while you have him,
and we will see what to do with him by-and-by."

There is an old saying which should never be forgotten, that "Man
proposes, but God disposes."