worse ship, for the sake of being with you. But, I say,
who is the young lady your skipper--I may now, though, call him our
skipper--has fallen in love with?"

"A Miss Garden. She is very young, and very fair, and very bright and
lively. I'm not surprised at any one's admiring her! it's much more
wonderful that everybody doesn't fall in love with her over head and
ears: for my part, though I've only seen her two or three times, I'm
ready to fight and die for her, too, if it were necessary."

"Oh, of course! that we should all be ready to do, as in duty bound, for
our skipper's wife, and much more for the lady of his love," observed
Duff; "but I want to know who she is?"

"I was going to tell you. She has no father nor mother; and her only
living relation, that I know of, is an old colonel Gauntlett, on whose
protection she is entirely thrown. He is rather a grumpy old chap, they
say--but she has no help for it; and he takes her about wherever he
goes. He has got some money--but he hates the navy, and swears she
shall never marry a sailor, or if she does he'll cut her off with a
farthing. He came out here some months ago, and has never let any one
with a blue jacket come inside his door; but, somehow or other, Captain
Fleetwood got introduced to her, and as he was in mufti, the old chap
didn't know he was in the navy, and told him he should be happy to make
his acquaintance. He did not find out his mistake for some time; and
when he did--my eyes, what a rage he was in! He did not mind it so
much, though, afterwards, as he is going away in a few days, and thought
the captain and his niece were not likely to meet again; but the
skipper, you see, is not the man to let the grass grow under his feet in
making love, more than in anything else, and in the mean time he had
managed to come it pretty strong with Miss Garden. How it will end I
can't say--I only know that our captain is the last man in the world to
yield up a lady if he loves her, and believes she loves him--he'd as
soon think of striking his flag to an enemy while he had got a shot in
the locker; so, I suppose, he'll either win over the old cove, or run
off with her, and snap his fingers at him--he doesn't care for his
money;--and, to my idea, that would be the best way to settle it."

"So I think," observed the other youngster. "I've made up my mind, when
I want to marry, if I cannot get the old one's consent, to take French
leave, and settle the mat