e a boatswain, I shall be so
glad to tell Mrs Burton," said Miss Anna Maria. "She is a very nice
good creature, and I should like to make her happy."

"Yes, baby, it is a great rise for a seaman," answered Mr Schank, "and
I have no doubt Dick Burton is the man to appreciate it; so if you like,
you can go and tell them, for I feel very sure he will obtain it."

I understood very clearly all that was said. Miss Anna Maria, taking me
by the hand, hurried off to the kitchen, where my father and mother were
sitting. I scarcely know which was the better pleased to hear this good
news. I rather think my father was. My mother remarked that it was
what her Richard fully deserved; indeed, I rather suspect that if she
had been told he had been made a lieutenant or even a commander, she
would only have thought that he had received his deserts; but that was
all very right and proper. It is a great thing that a woman should have
a high opinion of her husband, and it is a very unhappy matter for her
when she has not, or at all events when he does not deserve it.

I believe my father had several times proposed leaving Whithyford, and
looking out for a ship; but my mother urged him to stay a day or two
longer, for she could not bear to part from the Little Lady. At length
he said he must go; and though Mr Schank told him that he was welcome
to remain, he said that he had been idle long enough, and must now look
out for another ship.

"But, Burton, do you intend to take your wife to sea again with you?"
asked the Lieutenant.

"I should like to, sir; and yet I am rather doubting about it," he
answered, "even if I can obtain permission; but if I do not, she would
like to go and pay a visit to her friends in Ireland. It is a long time
since she has seen them, and they made her promise to go when she could,
and now that I am likely to be a warrant officer, they will look upon
her and her boy with more respect than they might have done. Do you
see, sir, they are a somewhat upper class of people. Polly loved me,
and so we married; but they seemed to think that she was letting herself
down greatly in splicing with a seaman, and would not, indeed, for some
time have anything to say to her."

Mr Schank reported this to his sisters. They, however, had taken such
a liking to my mother, that they had made up their minds to ask her to
stay with them instead. They knew that they had a powerful inducement
to make her accept their invi