especial satisfaction.

"Who is it from?" asked my mother, in a languid voice. "From Sir
Reginald," he replied. "It is very kind and complimentary. He says
that he has had great pleasure in doing as I requested him. He
fortunately, when going down to the Admiralty, met his friend Captain
Grummit, who has lately been appointed to the `Blaze-away,' man-of-war,
and who expressed his willingness to receive on board his ship the son
of any friend of his, but--and here comes the rub--Captain Grummit, he
says, has made it a rule to take no midshipmen unless their parents
consent to allow them fifty pounds a year, in addition to their pay.
This sum, the Captain states, is absolutely necessary to enable them to
make the appearance he desires all his midshipmen to maintain. Fifty
pounds a year is a larger sum, I fear, than my purse can supply,"
observed my father when he had read thus far.

"I should think it was, indeed!" exclaimed Aunt Deb. "Fifty pounds a
year! Why, that's nearly half of my annual income. It would be
madness, John, to make any promise of the sort. Suppose you were to let
him go, and to stint the rest of his brothers and sisters by making him
so large an allowance--what will be the result, granting that he is not
killed in the first battle he is engaged in, or does not fall overboard
and get drowned, or the ship is not wrecked, and he escapes the other
hundred and one casualties to which a sailor is liable? Why, when he
becomes a lieutenant he'll marry to a certainty, and then he'll be
killed, and leave you and his mother and me, or his brothers and
sisters, to look after his widow and children, supposing they are able
to do so."

"But I shall have a hundred and twenty pounds full pay, and ninety
pounds a year half-pay," I answered; "I know all about it, I can tell
you."

"Ninety pounds a year and a wife and half-a-dozen small brats to support
on it," exclaimed Aunt Deb in an indignant tone. "The wife is sure to
be delicate, and know nothing about housekeeping, and she and the
children will constantly be requiring the doctor in the house."

"But you are going very far ahead, Aunt Deb, I haven't gone to sea yet,
or been made a lieutenant, and if I had, there's no reason why I should
marry."

"There are a great many reasons why you should not," exclaimed Aunt Deb.

"I was going to say that there are many lieutenants in the navy who have
not got wives, and I do not suppose that I shall marry wh