when so called would tell
everybody that my name was now "Thomas Saunders."

One Sunday, about three weeks after I had given up my berth, I was
walking with my father and Virginia on the terrace of the hospital, when
we perceived a large party of ladies and gentlemen coming towards us.
My father was very proud of us: I had this very day put on the new suit
of clothes which he had ordered for me, and which had been cut out in
the true man-of-war fashion; and Virginia was, as usual, very nicely
dressed. We were walking towards the party who were advancing, when all
of a sudden my father started, and exclaimed:--

"Well, shiver my timbers! if it ain't _she_--and _he_--by all that's
blue!"

Who _she_ or _he_ might be, neither Virginia nor I could imagine; but I
looked at the party, who were now close to us, and perceived, in advance
of the rest, an enormous lady, dressed in a puce-coloured pelisse and a
white satin bonnet. Her features were good, and, had they been on a
smaller scale, would have been considered handsome. She towered above
the rest of the company, and there was but one man who could at all
compete with her in height and size, and he was by her side.

My father stopped, took off his cocked hat, and scraped the gravel with
his timber toe, as he bowed a little forward.

"Sarvant, your honour's ladyship. Sarvant, your honour Sir Hercules."

"Ah! who have we here?" replied Sir Hercules, putting his hand up as a
screen above his eyes. "Who are you, my man?" continued he.

"Tom Saunders, your honour's coxswain, as was in the Druid," replied my
father, with another scrape at the gravel, "taken in moorings at last,
your honour. Hope to see your honour and your honourable ladyship quite
well."

"I recollect you now, my man," replied Sir Hercules, very stiffly. "And
where did you lose your leg?"

"Battle o' the Nile, your honour; Majesty's ship Oudacious."

"How interesting!" observed one of the ladies; "one of Sir Hercules' old
men."

"Yes, madam, and one of my best men. Lady Hercules, you must recollect
him," said Sir Hercules.

"I should think so, Sir Hercules," replied the lady; "did I not give him
my own lady's maid in marriage?"

"Dear me, how _excessively_ interesting!" said another of the party.

Now, this was a little event in which Sir Hercules and Lady Hercules
stood prominent; it added to their importance for the moment, and
therefore they were both pleased. Lady Hercules then sai