is, it will be
by-and-bye. I've a good matter of money, which I've laid by year after
year, and worked hard for it too, and I never have known what to do with
it. I can't understand the Funds and those sort of things, so I have
kept some here and some there. Now, you know the grass land at the back
of the cottage: it forms part of a tidy little farm, which is rented for
seventy pounds a year, by a good man, and it has been for sale these
three years; but I never could manage the price till now. When we go
back to Deal, I shall try if I can buy that farm; for, you see, money
may slip through a man's fingers in many ways, but land can't run away;
and, as you say, it will be Bessy's one of these days--and more too, if
I can scrape it up."

"You are right, Bramble," said Peter Anderson, "and I am glad to hear
that you can afford to buy the land."

"Why, there's money to be picked up by pilotage if you work hard, and
aren't afraid of heavy ships," replied Bramble.

"Well, I never had a piece of hand, and never shall have, I suppose,"
said my father. "I wonder how a man must feel who can stand on a piece
of ground and say, `This is my own!'"

"Who knows, father? it's not impossible but you may."

"Impossible! No, nothing's impossible, as they say on board of a
man-of-war. It's not impossible to get an apology out of a midshipman,
but it's the next thing to it."

"Why do they say that, father?"

"Because midshipmen are so saucy--why, I don't know. They haven't no
rank as officers, nor so much pay as a petty officer, and yet they give
themselves more airs than a lieutenant."

"I'll tell you why," replied Anderson. "A lieutenant takes care what he
is about. He is an officer, and has something to lose; but a midshipman
has nothing to lose, and therefore he cares about nothing. You can't
break a midshipman, as the saying is, unless you break his neck. And
they have necks which aren't easily broken, that's sartain."

"They do seem to me to have more lives than a cat," observed my father,
who, after a pause, continued, "Well, I was saying how hard it was to
get an apology out of a midshipman. I'll just tell you what took place
on board of one ship I served in. There was a young midshipman on board
who was mighty free with his tongue; he didn't care what he said to
anybody, from the captain downward. He'd have his joke, come what
would, and he'd set everybody a-laughing; punish him as much as you
please, it