leisure to use the
intellect which thou hast given me, search into the secrets of nature,
do great and glorious actions, and serve and praise thee, O my creator!
longer and more worthily.'

The lip of the god curled lightly, and again he acquiesced. 'I have some
spare years to dispose of,' he said, 'of which others of my creatures
have begged to be relieved. You shall have thirty years of your own.
From thirty to fifty you shall have the ass's years, and labour and
sweat for your support. From fifty to seventy you shall have the dog's
years, and take care of the stuff, and snarl and growl at what younger
men are doing. From seventy to ninety you shall have the monkey's years,
and smirk and grin and make yourself ridiculous. After that you may
depart.'

* * * * *

I was going on to Cuba. The commodore had insisted on my spending my
last days with him at Port Royal. He undertook to see me on board the
steamer as it passed out of the harbour. I have already described his
quarters. The naval station has no colonial character except the
climate, and is English entirely. The officers are the servants of the
Admiralty, not of the colonial government. Their interests are in their
profession. They look to promotion in other parts of the world, and
their functions are on the ocean and not on the land. The commodore is
captain of the guardship; but he has a commander under him and he
resides on shore. Everyone employed in the dockyard, even down to his
own household, is rated on the ship's books, consequently they are all
men. There is not a woman servant about the place, save his lady's
ladies'-maid. His daughters learn to take care of themselves, and are
not brought up to find everything done for them. His boys are about the
world in active service growing into useful and honourable manhood.

Thus the whole life tastes of the element to which it belongs, and is
salt and healthy as the ocean itself. It was not without its
entertainments. The officers of the garrison were to give a ball. The
young ladies of Kingston are not afraid of the water, cross the harbour
in the steam launches, dance till the small hours, return in the dark,
drive their eight or ten miles home, and think nothing of it. In that
climate, night is pleasanter to be abroad in than day. I could not stay
to be present, but I was in the midst of the preparations, and one
afternoon there was a prospect of a brilliant addition to th