Was you ever in love, Elise?" asked the boy with a solemn countenance.

The girl laughed heartily, and blushed a little.

"What a strange question, Billie," she said; "why do you ask?"

"Well, it's not easy to explain all at once; but--but I want to know if
you want to be married?"

Elise laughed again, and, then, becoming suddenly grave, asked seriously
why Billie put such foolish questions.

"Because," said Little Bill, slowly, and with an earnest look, "Jenkins
is _very_ anxious to know if you are fond of him, and he actually says
that he's afraid to ask you to marry him! Isn't that funny? I said
that even _I_ would not be afraid to ask you, if I wanted you--How red
you are, Elise! Have you been running?"

"O no," replied the girl, sheltering herself under another laugh; "and
what did he say to that?"

"He said a great many things. I will try to remember them. Let me
see--he said: `I haven't got the heart of a Mother Carey's
chicken,'--(he didn't tell me who Mother Carey is, but that's no matter,
for it was only one of her chickens he was speaking of);--`I could stand
afore a broadside without winkin','--(I give you his very words, Elise,
for I don't quite understand them myself);--`I could blow up a
magazine,' he went on, `or fight the French, as easy as I could eat my
breakfast, a'most, but to ask a pure an' beautiful angel like Elise'--
yes, indeed, you needn't shake your head; he said these very words
exactly--`a pure an' 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.' Now,
do you understand all that, Elise? for I don't understand the half of
it."

"O yes, I understand a good deal of it, though some of it is indeed
puzzling, as you say. But how did you come to recollect it all so well,
Little Bill?"

"Because he said he wanted me to help him, and to find out if you wanted
to marry him, so I paid particular attention to what he said, and--"

"Did he tell you to tell me all this?" asked Elise abruptly, and with
sudden gravity.

"O dear, no; but as he wanted me to find it out for him, and said that
not a soul knew about the matter but me, I thought the simplest way
would be to tell you all he said, and then ask you straight. He was
going to tell me something more, very particularly, for he was just
saying, in a very solemn tone, `You must on no account menti