"and younger, too. Don't you remember the
story about Collingwood offering his cake to the first lieutenant? He
became, remember, a greater man than Nelson, in all except worldly
honour."

"Would you ask him to come and sit by me, if you please?" said Alice.

So Halbert went and fetched him in, and he sat and had his breakfast
between Alice and Sam. They were all delighted with him; such a child,
and yet so bold and self-helpful, making himself quietly at home, and
answering such questions as were put to him modestly and well. Would
that all midshipmen were like him!

But it became time to go on board, and Captain Blockstrop, coming by
where Alice sat, said, laughing,--

"I hope you are not giving my officer too much marmalade, Miss
Brentwood? He is over-young to be trusted with a jam-pot,--eh, Tacks?"

"Too young to go to sea, I should say," said Alice.

"Not too young to be a brave-hearted boy, however!" said the Captain.
"The other day, in Sydney harbour, one of my marines who couldn't swim
went overboard and this boy soused in after him, and carried the
lifebuoy to him, in spite of sharks. What do you think of that for a
ten-year-old?"

The boy's face flushed scarlet as the Captain passed on, and he held
out his hand to Alice to say good-bye. She took it, looked at him,
hesitated, and then bent down and kissed his cheek--a tender, sisterly
kiss--something, as Jim said, to carry on board with him!

Poor little Tacks! He was a great friend of mine; so I have been
tempted to dwell on him. He came to me with letters of introduction,
and stayed at my place six weeks or more. He served brilliantly, and
rose rapidly, and last year only I heard that Lieutenant Tacks had
fallen in the dust, and never risen again, just at the moment that the
gates of Delhi were burst down, and our fellows went swarming in to
vengeance.

Chapter XXXVI

AN EARTHQUAKE, A COLLIERY EXPLOSION, AND AN ADVENTURE.

So the Captain, the Colonial Secretary, and the small midshipman left
the station and went on board again, disappearing from this history for
evermore. The others all went home and grew warlike, arming themselves
against the threatened danger; but still weeks, nay months, rolled on,
and winter was turning into spring, and yet the country side remained
so profoundly tranquil that every one began to believe that the
convicts must after all have been drowned, and that the boat found by
sagacious Blockstrop had been capsi