"What shall we do ?" "Cheer up, my lad, it may not be so bad after all," cried the Captain heartily.

"But, really, I must be going now; for, it is close on ten o'clock and I shall lose all my beauty sleep, as I said before.

Where is young Dick ?" "Down in the kitchen with Sarah," replied Mrs Gilmour to this question, ringing the bell as she spoke.

"He'll soon be ready if you insist on taking him away with you." "Humph!" ejaculated the other, "as he's going to be my valet or factotum by the agreement we made to-day, I don't think we'll be able to tell whether we suit each other, ha-ha! if he remains in one house and I in another, eh ?" "Perhaps not," said Mrs Gilmour, smiling in response with the chuckle he indulged in at the recollection of his old joke on his way home from the dockyard; and Dick entering the room at the same moment, with a broad grin on his face as if he knew what they were talking about, she added--"Sure, here he is to spake for himself! Are you ready to go home with the Captain, Dick ?" "Yes, mum," answered the lad promptly.

"Sarah told me as how the good gentleman allers went away sharp at nine o'clock, and so I comes up as the bell rung." "That's right, sharp's the word and quick's the motion; so we'd better be off," said the old sailor, taking his hat and stick which the housemaid, Sarah aforesaid, brought in from the hall.