As if I could stop to take music lessons! "Miss Wood," said Major Hockin, in his strongest manner, the last time he came to see me, "I stand to you in loco parentis.

That means, with the duties, relationships, responsibilities, and what not, of the unfortunate--I should say rather of the beloved--parent deceased.

I wish to be more careful of you than of a daughter of my own--a great deal more careful, ten times, Miss Wood; I may say a thousand times more careful, because you have not had the discipline which a daughter of mine would have enjoyed.

And you are so impulsive when you take an idea! You judge every body by your likings.

That leads to error, error, error." "My name is not Miss Wood," I answered; "my name is 'Erema Castlewood.' Whatever need may have been on board ship for nobody knowing who I am, surely I may have my own name now." When any body says "surely," at once up springs a question; nothing being sure, and the word itself at heart quite interrogative.