urn out well; has fully equalled my expectations; had the
true spirit of a sailor as a boy; we want a succession of such in the
service; had I a dozen suits I would send them all to sea, that is to
say if they wished to go. Naval men, generally, don't think as I do,
perhaps. They fancy that the country doesn't appreciate their services,
and, therefore, won't appreciate their sons, and so look out for berths
on shore for them; but it's possible, Lady Rogers, that they
over-estimate themselves. The case is very different with Jack; he is
as modest as a maiden of sixteen, and yet as bold and daring as a lion;
a first-rate officer; he's sure to get on; he'll be a commander in three
or four years, and be a post-captain not long after. Now, there's your
boy, Tom, just such another lad as Jack was--sure to rise in the
service; and yet he'd be thrown away in any other profession. If you
send him to Oxford or Cambridge he'd expend all his energies in
boat-racing, or steeple-chasing and cricket--very good things in their
way, but bringing no result; whereas, the same expenditure of energy in
the navy would insure him honour and promotion; and depend on it he'll
get on just as well as Jack."

"But do you think, Admiral, that Tom really wishes to go to sea?" asked
Lady Rogers, in a slightly trembling voice.

"No doubt about it; determined as a young fellow can be, with yours and
his father's permission," answered the Admiral; and he gave an account
of his conversation with Tom, assuring her ladyship that Sir John had no
objection provided she would consent.

Lady Rogers called up Tom, who had been watching her and the Admiral
from a distant part of the room, guessing what was going forward. With
genuine feeling he threw his arms round his mother's neck, and while,
with tears in his eyes, he confessed that he had set his heart on going
to sea, he told her how very sorry he felt at wishing to leave her.

"The news does not come upon me unexpectedly, my dear boy," she
answered, holding his hand and looking with all a mother's love into his
honest face. "I have long suspected that you wished to go to sea; but,
as you did not say so positively, I thought, perhaps, that you might
change your mind. However, as Admiral Triton assures me that you are
cut out for a sailor, and that he can answer for your becoming as good
an officer as your brother Jack is said to be, if your father gives his
consent, I will not withhold mine."