as good as her word to me; she gave such an account of my
courage and presence of mind, of her fears and at last of her getting
tipsy--of my remaining at the helm and managing the boat all night by
myself, that I obtained great reputation among the ship's company, and
it was all reported to the officers, and worked its way until it came
from the first lieutenant to the captain, and from the captain to the
port admiral. This is certain, that Peggy Pearson did do me a good
service, for I was no longer looked upon as a mere youngster, who had
just come to sea, and who had not been tried.

"Well, sir," said Bob Cross, a day or two afterwards, "it seems, by
Peggy Pearson's report, that you're not frightened at a trifle."

"Peg Pearson's report won't do me much good."

"You ought to know better, Master Keene, than to say that; a mouse may
help a lion, as the fable says."

"Where did you learn all your fables, Cross?"

"I'll tell you; there's a nice little girl that used to sit on my knee
and read her fables to me, and I listened to her because I loved her."

"And does she do so now?"

"Oh, no; she's too big for that--she'd blush up to the temples; but
never mind the girl or the fables. I told you that Peggy had reported
your conduct, as we say in the service. Now do you know, that this very
day I heard the first lieutenant speaking of it to the captain, and
you've no idea how proud the captain looked, although he pretended to
care nothing about it; I watched him, and he looked as much as to say,
`that's my boy.'"

"Well, if that pleases him, I'll make him prouder yet of me, if I have
the opportunity," replied I.

"That you will, Master Keene, if I'm any judge of fizonomy; and that's
the way to go to a parent's heart: make him feel proud of you."

I did not forget this, as the reader will eventually discover.

I had written to my mother, giving her a long account of my adventures,
but not saying a word of my having been at Chatham. I made her suppose,
as I did the captain, that I had been carried up to London. My letter
reached her the day after the one announcing my safety, written to her
by Captain Delmar.

She answered me by return of post, thanking Heaven for my preservation,
and stating how great had been her anguish and misery at my supposed
loss. In the latter part of the letter was this paragraph:--

"Strange to say, on the night of the 16th, when I was on my bed in
tears, having but just recei