th a
large family, and in justice to them you are bound to take it.
Everybody does as he pleases with his own money,--depend upon it, you
saved her from breaking her leg short off at the hip joint."

"Upon that supposition I presume I must accept of the legacy," replied
Captain Wilson, laughing.

"Of course, send for it at once. The rate of exchange is now high. I
will give you government bills, which will make it nearly four thousand
pounds."

"Four thousand pounds for preventing an old woman from falling," replied
Captain Wilson.

"Devilish well paid, Wilson, and I congratulate you."

"For how much am I indebted to the father of young Easy!" observed
Captain Wilson, after a silence of some minutes; "if he had not assisted
me when I was appointed to a ship, I should not have gained my
promotion--nor three thousand pounds I have made in prize-money--the
command of a fine frigate--and now four thousand pounds in a windfall."

The Governor thought that he was more indebted to Jack than to his
father for some of these advantages, but he was careful not to point
them out.

"It's very true," observed the Governor, "that Mr Easy was of service
to you when you were appointed; but allow me to observe that for your
ship, your prize-money, and for your windfall, you have been wholly
indebted to your own gallantry in both senses of the word; still Mr
Easy is a fine generous fellow, and so is his son, I can tell you.
By-the-bye, I had a long conversation with him the other day."

"About himself?"

"Yes, all about himself. He appears to me to have come into the service
without any particular motive, and will be just as likely to leave it in
the same way. He appears to be very much in love with that Sicilian
nobleman's daughter. I find that he has written to her, and to her
brother, since he has been here."

"That he came into the service in search of what he never will find in
this world, I know very well; and I presume that he has found that out--
and that he will follow up the service is also very doubtful; but I do
not wish that he should leave it yet; it is doing him great good,"
replied Captain Wilson.

"I agree with you there--I have great influence with him, and he shall
stay yet awhile. He is heir to a very large fortune, is he not?"

"A clear eight thousand pounds a year, if not more."

"If his father dies he must, of course, leave: a midshipman with eight
thousand pounds a year would indeed be an ano