t he had visited old Nanny,
who had made her will in due form, and confided it to him, and that he
thought that she was more inclined to listen to him than she had before
been; that my father and mother and sister were well, and that Spicer
had been obliged to go into the hospital with an abscess in his knee,
occasioned by running something into it, and that it was reported that
he was very ill, and, in all probability, amputation must take place. I
felt convinced that Spicer must have, in his hasty retreat, fallen over
the iron railings which lay on the ground, and which had, as I
mentioned, tripped me up; but with this difference, that, as the spikes
of the railing were from me; and consequently I met with little injury,
they must have been towards him, and had penetrated his knee, and thus
it was that he had received the injury. Anderson also stated that they
were very busy at the hospital, receiving the men who had been maimed in
the glorious battle of Trafalgar. Altogether, I made up my mind that I
would take the first ship that was offered for pilotage up the river,
that I might know more of what was going on; and, as we sat down to
supper, I mentioned my intentions to Bramble.

"All's right: Tom, you're young, and ought to be moving; but just now I
intend to take a spell on shore. I have promised Bessy, and how can I
refuse her anything, dear girl? I don't mean to say that I shall never
pilot a vessel again, but I do feel that I am not so young as I was, and
this last affair has shaken me not a little, that's the truth of it.
There's a time for all things, and when a man has enough he ought to be
content, and not venture more. Besides, I can't bear to make Bessy
unhappy; so, you see, I've half promised--only half, Bessy, you know."

"I think you would have done right if you had promised altogether,"
replied I; "you have plenty to live upon, and are now getting a little
in years. Why should you not stay on shore, and leave them to work who
want the money?"

Bessy's eyes beamed gratefully towards me, as I thus assisted her
wishes. "You hear, father," said she, fondling him, "Tom agrees with
me."

"Ah!" replied Bramble, with a sigh, "if--but we cannot have all we wish
in this world."

Bessy and I both felt what he would have referred to, and we were
silent. She cast down her eyes, and appeared busy with her fork,
although she was eating nothing. I no longer felt the repugnance that I
had a short time