rstand that, Ben. If ever you can do me a good turn I am sure you
will, and I need not tell you that when we are boarding an enemy's ship,
and you are in the thickest of the fun, Pat Brady won't be far off your
side. Just tell your mother that, for may be I may not have an
opportunity of speaking to her as I would wish."

"He is a good honest fellow, that cousin of ours," said my mother when I
told her. "It is just like him, and I am very thankful to think that
you have so true a friend among the men. If you behave wisely and
kindly to them, depend upon it you will always be able to get work done,
when others much older than yourself will fail, and that more than
anything else will gain you the approval of your superior officers."

The Third-Lieutenant of the frigate had gone home on sick leave, and his
cabin was given up to my mother. She told me she felt very strange
occupying a berth aft when she had been so long accustomed to one in the
fore-part of the ship. It was satisfactory to see as much attention
paid her as if she had always occupied the position of a lady. Indeed I
may say with satisfaction that she was well deserving of all the
attention paid her, while in her manner and conversation she was
thoroughly the lady. I was said to take after her, and, at the risk of
being considered vain and egotistical, it is satisfactory to believe I
did. "It would be a shame not to place that boy on the quarter-deck," I
heard the Captain observe to Mr Schank one day, when he was not aware
how near I was. "He looks, and is, thoroughly the gentleman, and will
make a smart young officer, depend on that."

I was delighted to find myself on board ship again, and if the choice
had been given me I suspect that I should have remained rather than have
accompanied my mother back to Whithyford. After we had doubled Cape
Clear a sail hove in sight, to which we gave chase. She was a large
brig, and soon showed us that she had a fast pair of heels, by keeping
well ahead. All sail was pressed on the frigate, and yet, after chasing
several hours, we appeared to be no nearer to her. Still Captain Oliver
was not a man to strike to an enemy, or to give up a chance of making a
prize as long as the slightest possibility of doing so remained. All
night long we kept in her wake; she probably expecting a fog, or a
change of wind, or some other circumstance to enable her to alter her
course without being perceived by us. The night,