"

"Thanky, sir," replied I, for I was overjoyed at such language from
Captain Delmar, and I thought to myself, if he says my mother ought be
proud of me, he feels so himself.

"Of course, you cannot do duty under such a masquerade as you are at
present," continued the captain, who referred to my stained skin. "I
presume it will wear off by-and-by. You will dine with me to-day; now
you may go to your messmates."

I left the cabin, bowing very respectfully, and pleased with what had
occurred. I hastened to join my messmates, not, however, until I had
shaken hands with Bob Cross, who appeared as delighted to see me as if
he was my father.

I leave the reader to imagine the sort of levee which I held both on the
quarter-deck and below. Mr Hippesley could not get any of the officers
to mind their duty. I certainly was for two or three days the greatest
personage in the ship. After that, I had time to tell the whole of my
history quietly to Bob Cross.

Bob Cross, when he had heard me without interruption, said, "Well,
Master Keene, there's no telling what a man's born to till after he's
dead, and then it's all known: but it does appear to me that you are
born to something out of the common. Here you are, not sixteen, not
only playing a man's part, but playing it manfully. You have been put
in most difficult situations, and always have fallen upon your feet in
the end. You appear to have an old head upon very young shoulders; at
one moment to be a scampish boy full of mischief, and at another a
resolute, cool, and clever man. Sarcumstances, they say, make men, and
so it appears in you; but it does seem strange for one and the same lad
to be stealing the purser's plums at one moment, and twisting a devil of
a nigger pirate round his finger the very next; and then you have had
such escapes--twice reported dead at head-quarters, and twice come to
life again. Now Master Keene, I've very good news to tell you: you
don't know how high you stand with the captain and officers: there's a
feeling of envy against a lad who goes ahead (as well as a man) which
blinds people to his real merits; but when he is supposed to be dead and
gone, and no longer in the way of others, then every one tells the real
truth; and I do assure you that not only the officers, but the captain
himself, grieved most sorely at your loss. I saw the captain's eyes
wink more than once when speaking of you, and the first lieutenant was
always telli