n grand
occasions, were stowed away in them, crop and heels. The less said
about the elegance of the furniture the better; or of the tea and
breakfast services, which might once have been uniform, but, as most of
the various pieces had gone the way of all crockery, others of every
description of size and shape had taken their places, till scarcely two
were alike; but that didn't detract from our happiness or the pleasure
of our guests, who, probably from their own services being in the same
condition, scarcely noticed this.

I had long had a desire to go to sea, partly from reading Captain
Berkeley's _History of the Navy_, _Robinson Crusoe_, and the _Adventures
of Peter Wilkins_, and partly from taking an occasional cruise on the
Shannon,--that queen of rivers, which ran her course past the walls of
Ballinahone, to mingle with the ocean, through the fair city of
Limerick.

Often had I stood on the banks, watching the boats gliding down on the
swift current, and listening to the songs of the fishermen, which came
from far away up the stream!

I had, as most boys would have done, talked to my mother, and pestered
my father and uncle, till the latter agreed to write to an old friend of
his in the navy to consult him as to the best means of enabling me to
gratify my wishes.

But I have been going ahead to talk of my family, forgetful of my
honoured uncle, the major. He conned the letter, holding it in his two
hands, now in one light, now in another, knitting his thick grey
eyebrows to see the better, and compressing his lips. I watched him all
the time, anxious to learn the contents, and yet knowing full well that
it would not do to interrupt him. At last he came to the bottom of the
page.

"It's just like him!" he exclaimed. "Terence, my boy, you'll have the
honour of wearing His Majesty's uniform, as I have done for many a long
year, though yours will be blue and mine is red; and you'll bring no
discredit on your cloth, I'll be your surety for it."

"Thank you, uncle, for your good opinion of me," I said. "And am I
really to become a midshipman, and wear a cockade in my hat, and a dirk
by my side?"

"Within a few days you may be enjoying that happiness, my boy," answered
the major. "My old friend, Captain Macnamara, writes me word that he'll
receive you on board the _Liffy_ frigate, which, by a combination of
circumstances, is now lying in Cork Harbour,--fortunate for us, but
which might have proved disas