cried looking m triumph at my mother have you learned geography stone yes father said i though with less confidence than before well how far is it from port to i could only shake my head if lay three upon your quarter what would be your nearest port again i had to give it up well i don t see that your geography is much better than history said he you d never get your at this rate can you do addition well then let us see if you can up my prize money he shot a mischievous glance at my mother as he spoke and she laid down her knitting on her lap and looked very earnestly at him you never asked me about that mary said he the is not the station for it i have heard you say that it is the atlantic for prize money and the for honour i had a share of both last which comes from changing a of for a now there are two pounds in every hundred due to me when the prize courts have done with them when we were watching off we got a matter of seventy and with wine food and powder lord wiu want his finger the peace of in the pie but that s for the courts to settle put them at four pounds apiece to me and what will the seventy bring two hundred and eighty pounds i answered why it is a fortune cried my mother clapping her hands try you again said he shaking his pipe at me there was the out of with twenty thousand spanish dollars aboard which make four thousand of our pounds her should be worth another thousand what s my share of that a hundred pounds why the couldn t work it out quicker he cried in his delight here s for you again i we passed the straits and worked up to the where we fell in with the la from the with sugar and twelve hundred pounds she s worth to me mary my darling and never again shall you soil your pretty fingers or pinch upon my pay my dear mother had borne her long struggle without a sign all these years but now that she was so suddenly of it she fell sobbing upon his neck it was a long time before my father had a thought to spare upon my examination in stone it s all in your lap mary said he dashing his own hand across his eyes by g when this leg of mine is sound we u for a spell to and if there is a frock than yours upon the may i never tread a again but how is it that you are so quick at figures when you know nothing of history or geography i tried to explain that addition was the same upon sea or land but that history and geography were not well he concluded you need figures to take a reckoning and you need nothing else save what your mother wit will teach you there never was one of our breed who did not take to salt water like a young lord has promised me a for you and hell be as good as his word so it was that my father came home to us and a better or no lad could wish for though my parents had been married so long they had really seen very little of each other and their affection was as warm and as fresh as if they were two newly wedded lovers i have learned since that sailors can be coarse and foul but never did i know it from my father for although he had seen as much rough work as the wildest could wish for he was always the same patient good humoured man with a smile the peace of and a word for all the village he could suit himself to his company too for on the one hand he could take his wine with the or with sir james the squire of the parish while on the other he would sit by the hour amongst my humble friends down m the with champion boy jim and the rest of them telling them such stories of and his men that i have seen the champion knot his great hands together while jim s eyes have like the embers as he listened my father had been placed on half pay like so many others of the old war officers and so for nearly two years he was able to remain with us during all this time i can only once remember that there was the slightest between him and my mother it chanced that i was the cause of it and as great events sprang out of it i must tell you how it came about it was indeed the first of a series of events which affected not only my fortunes but those of very much more important people the spring of was an early one and the middle of april saw the leaves thick upon the chestnut trees one evening we were all seated together over a dish of tea when we heard the of steps outside our door and there was the with a letter in his hand stone i think it is for me said my mother and sure enough it was addressed in the most writing to mrs mary stone of s oak and there was a red seal the size of a half crown upon the outside of it with a flying in the middle whom think you that it is from she asked i had hoped that it was from lord answered my father it is time the boy had his commission but if it be for you then it cannot be from any one of much importance can it not i she cried pretending to be offended you 