e sea on every side with the fragments of wreck.
"I am glad, Tom, it was not you or I got her on shore; I don't envy old
Fusty his feelings, if he's got any; perhaps he hasn't. If Uncle
Terence doesn't get a ship, he'll be for cutting the service and going
out and settling in Australia; and I intend to go with him, to keep
sheep and ride after wild cattle, and lead an independent sort of life.
I say, Tom, won't you come too?"

"Oh no; I am bound to come out here, and marry my little Feodorowna,"
answered Tom; "though perhaps she'd like to come out to Australia with
me."

"You be hanged, Tom! that's all nonsense," answered Desmond. "I thought
you had forgotten all about that affair."

"Of course not!" exclaimed Tom indignantly; "if she's faithful to me, I
am bound to be faithful to her."

"Always provided Sir John approves of your faithfulness," put in
Desmond.

"Let's change the subject," said Tom. "It's time that you and I and
Gordon should pass for seamanship, and as soon as we go home we shall
get through the college and gunnery, and then, I hope, before long get
our promotion."

Castles in the air erected by midshipmen are apt to fall to pieces, as
well as those built by older persons. They serve, however, to amuse
their architects, and after all, as they do not exhaust the strength or
energy, are not productive of any harm.

The squadron continued their depredations along the coast, till not a
Russian vessel, or any craft larger than a cock-boat, remained afloat,
and every storehouse and stack of corn or hay which could be got at by
the British seamen had been destroyed. As no private property was
intentionally injured, these proceedings produced scarcely the slightest
ill-will among the inhabitants, though they might have thought the
perpetrators somewhat impious for thus daring to offend their sacred
Emperor. History tells how gallantly the naval brigade behaved before
Sebastopol, and how at length, the night before that proud fortress
fell, the Russians sank their remaining line-of-battle ships; and how
the English and French admirals, to prevent a single keel from escaping,
placed their fleets across the mouth of the harbour, when the garrison,
despairing of saving even their steamers, set them on fire with their
own hands; and after proud Sebastopol had fallen, how Kinburn, not far
from the mouths of the Boug and the Dnieper, a strong casemated fort,
armed with seventy heavy guns, supported by w