ur company to dinner, Mr
Keene. Why, Mr Dott and you look as if you knew each other."

"Don't we, Tommy?" said I to the midshipman, grinning.

"I suspect that there is a pair of you," said the first lieutenant,
turning aft and walking away; after which Tommy and I went down the
companion ladder as fast as we could, and in a few seconds afterwards
were sitting together on the same chest, in most intimate conversation.

My extreme resemblance to our honourable captain was not unobserved by
the officers who were on the quarter-deck at the time of my making my
appearance; and, as I afterwards heard from Bob Cross, he was sent for
by the surgeon, on some pretence or another, to obtain any information
relative to me. What were Bob Cross's reasons for answering as he did I
could not at that time comprehend, but he explained them to me
afterwards.

"Who brought him down, Cross?" said the surgeon, carelessly.

"His own mother, sir; he has no father, sir, I hear."

"Did you see her? What sort of a person was she?"

"Well, sir," replied Bob Cross, "I've seen many ladies of quality, but
such a real lady I don't think I ever set my eyes upon before; and such
a beauty--I'd marry to-morrow if I could take in tow a craft like her."

"How did they come down to Portsmouth?"

"Why, sir, she came down to Portsmouth in a coach and four; but she
walked to the George Hotel, as if she was nobody."

This was not a fib on the part of the coxswain, for we came down by the
Portsmouth coach; it did, however, deceive the surgeon, as was intended.

"Did you see anything of her, Cross?"

"Not when she was with the captain, sir, but at her own lodgings I did;
such a generous lady I never met with."

A few more questions were put, all of which were replied to in much the
same strain by the coxswain, so as to make out my mother to be a very
important and mysterious personage. It is true that Tommy Dott could
have contradicted all this; but, in the first place, it was not very
likely that there would be any communication upon the point between him
and the officers; and in the next I cautioned him to say nothing about
what he knew, which, as he was strongly attached to me, he strictly
complied with: so Bob Cross completely mystified the surgeon, who, of
course, made his report to his messmates.

Mr Culpepper's report certainly differed somewhat from that of Bob
Cross. There was my statement of my aunt being married to a marine
officer-