then presented it. "Perhaps Faith might, but
I am sure I never could. You defied us to make out this, which is on the
other leaf; and then, without giving us fair play, you took it to the
desk in your Oak-room, and there you left it. Well, I took the liberty
of going there for it, for there can't be any secret about a thing that
will be printed; and how are they to print it, if they can't contrive to
read it? How much will you pay me for interpreting, papa? Mr. Twemlow,
I think I ought to have a guinea. Can you read it, now, with all your
learning, and knowledge of dead languages?"

"My dear, it is not my duty to read it, and not at all my business. It
seems to be written with the end of a stick, by a boy who was learning
his letters. If you can interpret it, you must be almost a Daniel."

"Do you hear that, papa, you who think I am so stupid? Faith gave it up;
she has no perseverance, or perhaps no curiosity. And I was very nearly
beaten too, till a very fine idea came into my head, and I have made
out every word except three, and perhaps even those three, if Captain
Honyman is not very particular in his spelling. Can you tell me anything
about that, papa?"

"Yes, Dolly, just what you have heard from me before. Honyman is a good
officer; a very good one, as he has just proved. No good officer ever
spells well, whether in the army or the navy. Look at Nelson's letters.
I am inclined to ascribe my own slow promotion to the unnatural accuracy
of my spelling, which offended my lords, because it puzzled them."

"Then all is straight sailing, as you say, papa. But I must tell you
first how I found it out, or perhaps you won't believe me. I knew that
Captain Honyman wrote this postscript, or whatever it is, with his
left hand, so I took a pen in my own left hand, and practised all the
letters, and the way they join, which is quite different from the other
hand. And here is the copy of the words, as my left hand taught my right
to put them down, after inking ever so many fingers:

"'We never could have done it without Scudamore. He jumped a most
wonderful jump from our jib-boom into her mizzen chains, when our
grapples had slipped, and we could get no nearer, and there he made
fast, though the enemy came at him with cutlasses, pikes, and muskets.
By this means we borded and carried the ship, with a loss as above
reported. When I grew faint from a trifling wound, Luff Scudamore led
the borders with a cool courage that disco