yed
all the luxuries which wealth could give, and he was a loved and petted
child. Then came a lawsuit, the subject of which he could not
comprehend. All he knew was, that it was with the Devereux family. It
resulted in the loss to his father of his entire fortune, and Paul
remembered hearing him say that they were beggars. "That is what I will
not be," he had exclaimed; "I can work--we can all work--I will work."

Paul was to be tried severely. His father died broken-hearted. It
seemed too probable that his mother would follow him ere long. Paul had
always desired to go to sea. He could no longer hope to tread the
quarter-deck as an officer, yet he still kept to his determination of
following a life on the ocean.

"I will enter as a cabin-boy; I will work my way upwards. Many have
done so, why should not I?" he exclaimed with enthusiasm; "I will win
wealth to support you all, and honours for myself. `Where there's a
will there's a way.' I don't see the way very clearly just now; but
that is the opening through which I am determined to work my way
onward."

Paul's mother, though a well-educated and very excellent person, knew
nothing whatever of the world. She would, indeed, have hesitated, had
she known the real state of the case, and what he would have to go
through, ere she allowed her son to enter before the mast on board a
man-of-war; but she had no one on whom she could rely, to consult in the
matter. Mrs Gerrard had retired to the humble cottage of a former
servant in a retired village, where she hoped that the few pounds a year
she had left her would enable her to support herself and her children,
with the aid of such needlework as she might obtain. Little did she
think, poor woman, to what trying difficulties she would be exposed.
Not only must she support herself, but educate her children. She had
saved a few books for this purpose, and some humble furniture for her
little cottage; everything else had been sold to raise the small sum on
the interest of which she was to live.

"Mother! mother! do let me at once go to sea!" exclaimed Paul, who
understood tolerably well the state of affairs. "I can do nothing at
home to help you, and only eat up what should feed others; if I go to
sea, I shall get food and clothing, and pay and prize-money, and be able
to send quantities of gold guineas home to you. Reuben Cole has been
telling me all about it; and he showed me a purse full of great gold
pie