t be better to say, `so long as there's _something_ to
pay?'" suggested Minnie.

"No, lass, it _wouldn't_," retorted the captain. "You're too fond of
improvin' things. I'm a stanch old Tory, I am. I'll stick to the old
flag till all's blue. None o' your changes or improvements for me."

This was a rather bold statement for a man to make who improved upon
almost every line he ever quoted; but the reader is no doubt acquainted
with parallel instances of inconsistency in good men even in the present
day.

"Now, sister," continued Captain Ogilvy, "what d'ye think of my plan?"

"I like it well, brother," replied Mrs Brand with a gentle smile.
"Will you come soon?"

"To-morrow, about eight bells," answered the captain promptly.

This was all that was said on the subject. The thing was, as the
captain said, settled off-hand, and accordingly next morning he conveyed
such of his worldly goods as he meant to retain possession of to his
sister's cottage--"the new ship", as he styled it. He carried his traps
on his own broad shoulders, and the conveyance of them cost him three
distinct trips.

They consisted of a huge sea-chest, an old telescope more than a yard
long, and cased in leather; a quadrant, a hammock, with the bedding
rolled up in it, a tobacco-box, the enormous old Family Bible in which
the names of his father, mother, brothers, and sisters were recorded;
and a brown teapot with half a lid. This latter had belonged to the
captain's mother, and, being fond of it, as it reminded him of the "old
ooman", he was wont to mix his grog in it, and drink the same out of a
teacup, the handle of which was gone, and the saucer of which was among
the things of the past.

Notwithstanding his avowed adherence to Tory principles, Captain Ogilvy
proceeded to make manifold radical changes and surprising improvements
in the little parlour, insomuch that when he had completed the task, and
led his sister carefully (for she was very feeble) to look at what he
had done, she became quite incapable of expressing herself in ordinary
language; positively refused to believe her eyes, and never again
entered that room, but always spoke of what she had seen as a curious
dream!

No one was ever able to discover whether there was not a slight tinge of
underlying jocularity in this remark of Mrs Brand, for she was a
strange and incomprehensible mixture of shrewdness and innocence; but no
one took much trouble to find out, for she was