all over the world."

"Not quite so much as that, John, though I have certainly seen a good
deal. But here is mother."

Mrs. Hammond entered with a face beaming with delight.

"You never saw anyone so astonished as Mrs. Smith when I went in and
ordered all those things. Her eyes opened wider and wider as I went on,
and when I offered her the gold I thought she would have a fit. She took
it and bit it to make sure that it was good, and then said: 'Have you
found it, Mrs. Hammond, or what good fortune have you had?'

" 'The best of fortunes, Mrs. Smith,' says I. 'My boy Will has come back
from the wars a grand officer, with his pocket lined with gold, so you
will find I'll be a better customer to you than I have been.'

" 'You don't say so, Mrs. Hammond!' says she. 'I always thought he was a
nice boy, well spoken and civil. And so he is an officer, is he? Only to
think of it! Well, I am mighty pleased to hear it,' and with that I came
off with my basket full of provisions. The whole village will be talking
of it before nightfall. Mrs. Smith is a good soul, but she is an arrant
gossip, and you may be sure that the tale will gain by the telling, and
before night people will believe that you have become one of the royal
family."

In half an hour a meal was ready--tea, crisp slices of fried bacon, and
some boiled eggs--and never did three people sit down to table in a more
delighted state of mind.

"My life," the old woman said, when at last the meal was finished, "just
to think that we'll be able to feed every day of the year like this! Why,
we'll grow quite young again, John; we sha'n't know ourselves. We had five
shillings a week before, and now we'll have six-and-twenty. I don't know
what we'll do with it. Why, we didn't get that on an average, not when you
were a young man and as good a fisherman as there was in the village. We
did get more sometimes when you made a great haul, or when a cargo was
run, but then, more often, when times were bad, we had to live on fish for
weeks together."

"Now, missis, clear away the things and reach me down my pipe from the
mantel, and we'll hear Will's tales. I'll warrant me they will be worth
listening to."

When the table was cleared the old woman put some more coal on the fire
and they sat round it, the old folk one on each side, with Will in the
middle. Then Will told his adventures, the fight with the French frigate,
the battle with the three Moorish pirates, how he had