that seamen sometimes had a habit--
mistaken, it might be--of calling even big women "nice little gals" when
they chanced to be fond of them.

"And are you _really_ afraid to ask Elise to marry you?" asked the boy,
earnestly.

"I suspect that's what's the matter wi' me," replied the sailor, with a
modest look.

"I always thought that nothing could frighten you," said Billie, in a
somewhat disappointed tone, for it seemed to him as if one of his idols
were shaking on its pedestal. "I can't understand it, for _I_ would not
be afraid to ask her--if I wanted her."

At this Jenkins again laughed, and said that he believed him, and that
Billie would understand these things better when he was older.

"In the meantime, Little Bill," he continued, "I haven't got the heart
of a Mother Carey's chicken. I could stand afore a broadside without
winkin', I believe; I think I could blow up a magazine, or fight the
French, as easy as I could eat my breakfast a'most, but to ask a pure,
beautiful angel like Elise to marry _me_, a common seaman--why, I hasn't
got it in me. Yet I'm so fond o' that little gal that I'd strike my
colours to _her_ without firin' a single shot--"

"Does Elise want to marry _you_?" asked Billie.

"Oh, that's the very pint!" said the seaman with decision. "If I could
only make sure o' that pint, I'd maybe manage to come up to the scratch.
Now, that's what I wants you to find out for me, Little Bill, an' I
know you're a good little shaver, as'll do a friend a good turn when you
can. But you must on no account mention--"

He was going to have said, "You must on no account mention that I was
blabbing to you about this, or that I wanted to find out such a thing,"
when the sudden appearance of Elise's lap-dog announced the fact that
its mistress was approaching.

With a flushed face the bold seaman sprang up and darted out, as if to
attack one of those pirates of the Java seas who had made so powerful an
impression on Little Bill's mind. But his object was escape--not
attack. Lightly vaulting the garden fence, he disappeared into the same
thicket which, on another occasion, had afforded opportune refuge to
Kateegoose. A few moments later Elise turned into the walk, and stood
before the summer-house.

"You here, Little Bill!" she exclaimed on entering, "I am very glad to
find you, for I have been alone all the morning. Everybody is away--in
the fields, I suppose--and I don't like being alone."

"