e more; but when, in desperation, the
Captain hauled taut the sheets of his intellect, got well to wind'ard of
the old 'ooman an' gave her a broadside of philosophy, he was more
successful.

"Mother," he said, earnestly, "you don't feel easy under this breeze,
'cause why? you're entirely on the wrong tack. Ready about now, an' see
what a change it'll make. Look 'ee here. You've _gained_ us both
instead of lost us both. Here am I, Willum Stout yours to command, a
trifle stouter, it may be, and hairier than I once was, not to say
older, but by a long chalk better able to love the old girl who took me
in, an' befriended me when I was a reg'lar castaway, with dirty weather
brewin', an' the rocks o' destitootion close under my lee; and who'll
never forget your kindness, no never, so long as two timbers of the old
hulk hold together. Well then, that's the view over the starboard
bulwarks. Cast your eyes over to port now. Here am I, Captain Wopper,
also yours to command, strong as a horse, as fond o' you as if you was
my own mother, an' resolved to stick by you through thick and thin to
the last. So you see, you've got us both--Willum an' me--me an' Willum,
both of us lovin' you like blazes an' lookin' arter you like dootiful
sons. A double tide of affection, so to speak, flowin' like strong
double-stout from the beer barrel out of which you originally drew me,
if I may say so. Ain't you convinced?"

Mrs Roby _was_ convinced. She gave in, and lived for many years
afterwards in the full enjoyment of the double blessing which had thus
fallen to her lot in the evening of her days.

And here, good reader, we might close our tale; but we cannot do so
without a few parting words in reference to the various friends in whose
company we have travelled so long.

Of course it is unnecessary to say, (especially to our lady readers, who
were no doubt quite aware of it from the beginning), that Lawrence and
Emma, Lewis and Nita, were, in the course of time, duly married. The
love of their respective wives for each other induced the husbands not
only to dwell in adjoining villas, but to enter into a medical
co-partnery, in the prosecution of which they became professionally the
deities, and, privately, the adored of a large population of invalids--
with their more or less healthy friends--in the salubrious neighbourhood
of Kensington. To go about "doing good" was the business, and became
the second nature, of the young docto