be a fine young fellow too, and he
told us that you were well and hearty and had been through lots of fights.
But he didn't say nothing about your having come home."

"Well, here I am, John; and what is better, I have brought home some money
with me, and I shall be able to allow you and the mother a guinea a week
as long as you live."

"You don't mean it, lad!" the old man said with a gasp of astonishment; "a
guinea a week! may the Lord be praised! Do you hear that, missis? a guinea
a week!"

"Lord, Lord, only to think of it; why, we shall be downright rich!" said
his wife. "Plenty of sugar and tea, a bit of meat when we fancy it, and a
drop of rum to warm our old bones on Saturday night. It is wonderful,
John. The Lord be praised for His mercies! But can you afford it, Will? We
wouldn't take it from you if you can't, not for ever so."

"I can afford it very well," Will said, "and it will give me more pleasure
to give it you than to spend it in any other way. Now, mother, let us say
no more about it. Here is a guinea as a start, and I wish you would go to
the shop and get some tea and sugar and bread and butter and a nice piece
of bacon, and let us have a meal just as we used to do when we had made a
good haul, or taken a hand in a successful run."

"It is three years and a half since I saw a golden guinea," the old woman
said as she put on her bonnet, "and they won't believe their eyes at the
shop when I go in with it. You are sure you would like tea better than
beer?"

"Much better, though if John would prefer beer, get it for him; but I
think we had better put that off till this evening, then we will have a
glass of something hot together before I start."

"You are not going away so soon as that, Will, surely?" the old man said
when his wife had left them.

"Yes, John, this is a short visit. I have only four days, and am staying
with Miss Warden; that is to say, Miss Warden that was. I must go in and
see her father for a few minutes. We'll have plenty of time to talk over
everything before I leave, which I won't do till eight o'clock. I don't
suppose you have much to tell me, for there are not many changes in a
place like this. This man, perhaps, has lost his boat, and that one his
life, but that is about all. Now I have gone through a big lot, and have
many adventures to tell you."

"But how did you come to be made an officer, Will? That is what beats me."

"Entirely owing to my work at books, which you u