was what is
known as a "holy terror."

Finally good Mamma Surcouf sent him to the Seminary of St. Dinan,
saying:

"Now, Robert, be a good boy and study hard thy lessons!"

And Robert said, "Oui, Madame!" But he would not work.

One day the master in arithmetic did not like the method in which
young "Bobbie" answered him, and raising a cane, he ran towards the
youthful scholar. But Robert had learned a kind of "Jiu-Jitsu"
practiced by the youths of France, and he tackled his irate master
like an end-rush upon the foot-ball team, when he dives for a runner.
Both fell to the ground with a thud. And all the other boys yelled
"Fine!" in unison.

Now was a fierce battle, but weight told, and "Bobbie" was soon
underneath, with his teeth in the leg of his tutor. They scratched and
rolled until "Bobbie" freed himself, and, running to the window,
jumped outside--for he was on the ground floor--scaled the garden
fence, and made off. Home was twenty miles away.

"I must get there, somehow," said young "Bobbie." "I can never go
back. I will be spanked so that I cannot seat myself."

So little "Bob" trudged onward in the snow, for it was winter. It grew
dark. It was bitterly cold, and he had no hat. At length--worn out
with cold and hunger--he sank senseless to the roadside.

Luck pursues those destined for greatness.

Some fish-merchants happened that way, and, seeing the poor, helpless,
little boy, they picked him up; placed him upon a tiny dog-cart; and
carried him to St. Malo, where he had a severe attack of pneumonia.
But his good mother nursed him through, saying:

"Ta donc! He will never be a scholar. Ta donc! Young Robbie must go to
sea!"

So when "Bobbie" was well he was shipped aboard the brig _Heron_,
bound for Cadiz, Spain--and he was only just thirteen. But he threw up
his cap crying,

"This is just what I've always wanted. Hurrah for the salty brine!"

At about twenty years of age we find him upon the good ship _Aurora_
from which his dive into the Indian Ocean came near being his last
splash. And the Portuguese Lieutenant did not forget.

Upon the next visit of the cruiser _Aurora_ to the coast of Africa an
epidemic of malarial fever struck the crew. Among those who succumbed
to the disease was the Portuguese Lieutenant. He was dangerously ill.

The ship arrived at the island of Mauritius, and, Lieutenant Robert
Surcouf was just going ashore, when he received a message which said:

"Come and see me