That's what I see, father."

"Bosh, Tom, none o' your flummery," said he, grinning as he always does
at the mention of the Egyptian affair which they made such a fuss about,
just when I was a little nipper learning to run about, and that old men-
o'-warsmen thought all the more ridiculous from its contrast to Admiral
Hornby's rushing the British fleet through the Dardanelles, and stopping
the Russians in their march to victory at the very gates of
Constantinople, shortly before, in the days of `old Dizzy'--which was
really a deed to boast of, if any one wanted to talk of the British Lion
showing his teeth and waggling his tail, as he did when he `meant
business' in the good old days of Nelson! Aye, that _was_ `something
like,' father says; and worth all the `bronze stars' in the Khedive's
collection of leather medals! "None o' your flummery, Tom; you only
wants to put me off my course, you rascal, so as to make me forget what
I were a-talking about. But I don't forget, sonny! Look at me, I says,
and see what I've come to, with my forty year o' sailorin' all about the
world an' furrin parts--a poor rhumenaticky chap as is half a cripple,
forced to eke out his miserable pension of a bob an' a tanner a day by
pulling a rotten old tub of a boat back'ards and forruds, up and down
Porchm'uth Harbo'r, a-tryin' to gain an honest livin', an' jest only
arnin' bread an' cheese at that!"

"Oh, father!" said I. "How about that rabbit smothered in onions we had
yesterday for dinner, and the `tidy little sum' you told me you and
mother had in the Savings Bank? Besides that, we've bought the freehold
of our little house at Bonfire Corner, I know, father, and there's the
bird-shop and all the stock!"

"You knows too much, Master Tom, I'm a-thinking," he rejoined,
scratching his head again, as he always did, as now, when he was in a
quandary about anything, especially when any one had got the better of
him in an argument, or, as he said, `weathered' on him, and he wasn't
quite prepared with an answer, reaching over the sternsheets of the
wherry and dipping the blade of his oar, ready to make a stroke. "But,
look out, my lad! I think we'd better be a-going alongside now. Ain't
that a jolly there, signalling to us from the entry-port o' the old
_Victory_?"

"Aye, father," said I, for I had seen the marine holding up his hand to
summon us before he spoke. "The court-martial must be over sooner than
was expected."

"Not a bi