eful, manly spirit than I ever did before, and to the astonishment of
Dr Summers, set to with a will at everything he gave me to do, and
before long was nearly up at the head of my class. I wished to please
my father, and to follow his advice, that I am sure of; but I confess
that I was powerfully influenced by another motive. From what he had
said, I saw that this was the surest way of obtaining the accomplishment
of my wishes.

Hoops and driving had gone out, and cricket and marbles were in, and the
days were getting long and warm, when I received a letter from Mary,
saying that Captain Frankland had come home, and had written to our
father, but she did not know what had passed between them. I always
told Mary all I thought and wished; and though she cried very much at
the thoughts of my going away, yet she promised to help me as best she
could. How she was to help, I did not exactly know. I tried to console
her by promising to bring her back parrots without end from Africa, and
shawls from India, and fans and carved ivory bones from China, and
poisoned arrows, and darts, and tomahawks, and all sorts of dreadful
weapons, from America and the islands of the Pacific. Indeed, had I
fulfilled my promises to the letter, I could pretty well have loaded a
ship with my intended gifts. My father said nothing, and we all went
home together at the usual time. At the end of this half, a very
complimentary letter had preceded me.

"I am glad to hear that Dr Summers is pleased with you, my dear boy,"
said my father, and I thought his countenance wore a graver expression
than usual. "Tell me, are your wishes the same as when you last left
home?"

I replied that I was as anxious as ever to go to sea.

"I will not, then, thwart your inclination, Harry," he answered. "Your
mother and I would rather you had selected a profession which would have
kept you nearer to us. But you have chosen a fine line of life, and may
Heaven protect you in your career! I should have been glad, for some
reasons, to have had the power of sending you into the Royal Navy; but I
have no interest to get you in, and still less any to advance you in it.
The merchant-service should not be looked on as less noble and less
creditable a profession. It is one of the chief means by which
England's greatness and prosperity is maintained. In it your progress
and success will depend almost entirely on your own exertions. You must
also so conduct yoursel