operator. I went nearly mad. I wrote
a furious letter to the editor; I wrote another to the 'Times;' I wrote
to the 'Globe,' the 'Post,' and the 'Herald.' I explained, I elucidated,
I asked for the Englishman's birthright, as they call it--'Justice'--but
no use! In fact, my reclamations could only be inserted as
advertisements, and would cost me about a hundred pounds to publish.
So I sat down to grieve over my invention, and curse the hour I ever
thought of serving my country.

"It was about six months after this--I had been living on some relations
nearly as poor as myself--when I one day received an order to 'wait at
the Admiralty the next morning.' I went, but without hope or interest.
I could n't guess why I was sent for, but no touch of expectancy made me
anxious for the result.

"I waited from eleven till four in the ante-room; and at last, after
some fifty had had audiences, Lieutenant Sickleton was called. The time
was I would have trembled at such an interview to the very marrow of my
bones. Disappointment, however, had nerved me now, and I stood as much
at ease and composed as I sit here.

"'You are Mr. Sickleton?' said the First Lord, who was a 'Tartar.'

"'Yes, my Lord.'

"'You invented a kind of pump--a hand-pump for launches and small craft,
I think?'

"'Yes, my Lord.'

"'You have a model of the invention, too?'

"'Yes, my Lord.'

"'Can you describe the principle of your discovery? is there anything
which, for its novelty, demands the peculiar attention of the
Admiralty?'

"'Yes--at least I think so, my Lord,' said I, the last embers of hope
beginning to flicker into a faint flame within. 'The whole is so simple,
that I can, with your permission, make it perfectly intelligible even
here. There is a small double-acting piston--'

"'Confound the fellow! don't let him bore us, now,' said Admiral M------
in a whisper quite loud enough for me to overhear it. 'If it amuse his
Majesty, that's enough. Tell him what's wanted, and let him go.'

"'Oh, very well,' said the First Lord, who seemed terribly afraid of his
colleague. 'It is the king's wish, Mr. Sickleton, that your invention
should be tested under his Majesty's personal inspection, and you are
therefore commanded to present yourself at Windsor on Monday next, with
your model, at eleven o'clock. It is not very cumbrous, I suppose?'

"'No, my Lord. It only weighs four and a half hundredweight.'

"'Pretty well for a model; but here is an or