er to King George, who had been
pleased to knight our captain, and to make Commander Pellew a
post-captain.

No one else, that I know of, obtained any honours or rewards, though
each man and boy received his share of prize-money, and with that we had
no cause to complain.

However, to go back to the moment when the first lieutenant gave me
leave. "Thank you, sir! thank you!" I exclaimed, with difficulty
stopping myself from tossing up my hat for joy.

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, I rushed below, and, taking
the things I wanted out of my bag, I tumbled into Jerry's wherry.

The old man pulled as fast as he and his boy could lay their backs to
the oars.

"Stop, stop, my lad! wait for me!" he exclaimed as I jumped ashore and
was preparing to run to Southsea. "You'll frighten your wife and send
her into `high strikes' if you pounce down upon her as you seem inclined
to do. Wait till I go ahead and tell her to be looking out for you.
You won't lose much time, and prevent a great deal of mischief, though I
can't move along quite at the rate of ten knots an hour, as you seem
inclined to do."

I at once saw the wisdom of Jerry's advice, and waited, though somewhat
impatiently, until he and his boy had secured the boat.

"Come along, Will, my lad," he said at length, stepping ashore; "I'll
show you what my old legs can do," and off he set.

We soon crossed the High Street, and made our way through the gate
leading out of the town on to Southsea Common.

The village of Southsea was but a small, insignificant place in those
days. We had not gone far when we caught sight of a person with a
wooden leg stumping along at a good rate some way ahead. Although his
back was towards us, I at once felt sure that he was Uncle Kelson.

"All right!" cried Jerry, "that's Mr Kelson. He always carries a press
of sail. It couldn't have been better. I'll go on and make him
heave-to, and just tell him to guess who's come back; but I don't think
there's much fear of his getting the `high strikes' even though he was
to set eyes on you all of a sudden."

I brought up for a moment so as to let Jerry get ahead of me.

"Heave-to, cap'en! heave-to! I ain't a thundering big enemy from whom
you've any cause to run," I heard him shouting out. "Just look round,
and maybe you'll see somebody you won't be sorry to see, I've a notion."

My uncle, hearing Jerry's voice, turned his head, and instantly catching
sight of me,