day.

'You are aware that the Victory is a smart ship, and that cleanliness and
order are, of necessity, more strictly insisted upon there than in some
others?'

'Sir, I quite see it.'

'Well, I hope you will do your duty as well on a line-of-battle ship as
you did when mate of the brig, for it is a duty that may be serious.'

Bob replied that it should be his one endeavour; and receiving a few
instructions for getting on board the guard-ship, and being conveyed to
Portsmouth, he turned to go away.

'You'll have a stiff walk before you fetch Overcombe Mill this dark
night, Loveday,' concluded the captain, peering out of the window. 'I'll
send you in a glass of grog to help 'ee on your way.'

The captain then left Bob to himself, and when he had drunk the grog that
was brought in he started homeward, with a heart not exactly light, but
large with a patriotic cheerfulness, which had not diminished when, after
walking so fast in his excitement as to be beaded with perspiration, he
entered his father's door.

They were all sitting up for him, and at his approach anxiously raised
their sleepy eyes, for it was nearly eleven o'clock.

'There; I knew he'd not be much longer!' cried Anne, jumping up and
laughing, in her relief. 'They have been thinking you were very strange
and silent to-day, Bob; you were not, were you?'

'What's the matter, Bob?' said the miller; for Bob's countenance was
sublimed by his recent interview, like that of a priest just come from
the penetralia of the temple.

'He's in his mate's clothes, just as when he came home!' observed Mrs.
Loveday.

They all saw now that he had something to tell. 'I am going away,' he
said when he had sat down. 'I am going to enter on board a man-of-war,
and perhaps it will be the Victory.'

'Going?' said Anne faintly.

'Now, don't you mind it, there's a dear,' he went on solemnly, taking her
hand in his own. 'And you, father, don't you begin to take it to heart'
(the miller was looking grave). 'The press-gang has been here, and
though I showed them that I was a free man, I am going to show everybody
that I can do my duty.'

Neither of the other three answered, Anne and the miller having their
eyes bent upon the ground, and the former trying to repress her tears.

'Now don't you grieve, either of you,' he continued; 'nor vex yourselves
that this has happened. Please not to be angry with me, father, for
deserting you and the mill, where you want me,