looks so devilish young!" said Carrington; "he can't be fifteen."

"Possibly not fourteen," said Pike; "but we'll shave his head and
give him a wig. I'll answer for the 'make up;' and as I have had some
experience of private theatricals, rely on 't he'll pass muster."

"How will you dress him, Pike?"

"In livery,--a full suit of snuff-brown, lined with yellow; I 'll devote
a large cloak I have to the purpose, and we 'll set the tailor at work
to-day."

"Is he to have shorts?"

"Of course; some of you must 'stand' silk stockings for him, for we
shall have to turn him out with a good kit."

A very generous burst of promises here broke in, about shirts, vests,
cravats, gloves, and other wearables, which, I own it, gave the whole
contrivance a far brighter coloring in my eyes than when it offered to
be a mere lark.

"Will the rogue consent, think you?" asked Carrington.

"Will he prefer a bed and a dinner to nothing to eat and a siesta under
the planks on the quays of Quebec?" asked Pike, contemptuously. "Look
at the fellow! watch his keen eyes and his humorous mouth when he's
speaking to you, and say if he would n't do the thing for the fun of it?
Not but a right clever chap like him will see something besides a joke
in the whole contrivance.

"I foresee he 'll break down at the first go-off," said Carrington,
who through all the controversy seemed impressed with the very humblest
opinion of my merits.

"I foresee exactly the reverse," said Pike. "I've seldom met a more
acute youngster, nor one readier to take up your meaning; and if the
varlet does n't get spoilt by education, but simply follows out the bent
of his own shrewd intelligence, he'll do well yet."

"You rate him more highly than I do," said Carrington, again.

"Not impossible either; we take our soundings with very dissimilar
lead-lines," said Pike, scoffingly. "My opinion is formed by hearing the
boy's own observations about character and life when he was speaking of
Broughton; but if you were ten times as right about him, and I twice as
many times in the wrong, he 'll do for what I intend him."

The others expressed their full concurrence in the captain's view of
the matter, voted me a phoenix of all young vagabonds, and their
brother-officer Carrington a downright ass,--both being my own private
sentiments to the letter.

And now for an honest avowal! It was the flattery of my natural
acuteness--the captain's panegyric on my aptitude and s