e the
altar, about to take a wife for better or for worse to the end of life."

"So I was thinking, Sir Henry," answered True Blue, smiling. "And do
you know, that if it wasn't Mary Ogle I was going to marry, I shouldn't
like it at all."

"All right, then, my friend; you'll do," said the baronet. "Step into
the carriage."

The favours being distributed, Tom Marline mounted the coach-box of the
first carriage, in which were Mary Ogle and her father and mother,
carrying in his hands a long pole with a huge flag, on which was
inscribed, "True Blue for ever! Hurrah for our own Billy True Blue!"

Tim Fid mounted, as he said, the fo'castle of the next carriage, in
which came Mrs Bush and Susan, with Harry, who declared that he didn't
fancy the custom of following in different vehicles, as great folks did.

On Fid's banner was the device of a ship, with "Hurrah for the Navy of
Old England! Hurrah for her Gunners, Past, Present, and Future!"

On the box of the third carriage sat Sam Smatch, fiddle in hand, playing
away most lustily, and occasionally firing off a bow or stern-chaser of
jokes at the other carriages with a peculiar loud cackling laugh which
none but negroes can produce.

Nobody could have behaved better than did the brides and bridegrooms;
and when the ceremony was over, the bells set up a peal even more joyous
than before. Instead of driving back to Paradise Row, the carriages
proceeded to the harbour; and then at the Hard appeared half a dozen
man-of-war's boats, rigged gaily with flags. Sir Henry handed Mrs
Billy True Blue Freeborn into one boat, and Mrs Harry Hartland into
another, and of course their husbands stepped in after them; and then he
performed the same office to all the elder matrons and their younger
daughters; and then wishing them all health, happiness, and prosperity,
he entered his own boat and pulled across to Portsmouth.

The three godfathers and their mates stepped into another boat, and Sam
Smatch and the younger men into the sixth; and thus arranged, away the
boats pulled, Sam playing right lustily his merriest tunes. True Blue's
boat led, steering up the harbour, where lay Paul's and Abel's and
Peter's ships. As they passed, the people on board came to the side,
and cheered over and over again with all their might and main, making up
by the vehemence and multiplicity of their vociferations for the paucity
of their numbers.

True Blue and Harry got up and cheered too, and