Stubbards running after him, and no ninepence in any of his pockets,
because he was shelfed upon half-pay, on account of the depression of
the times and of his ribs. But Miss Dolly Darling was resolved to see
him righted, for she hated all national meanness.

"What is the use of having any influence," she asked her good father,
"unless you employ it for your own friends? I should be quite ashamed
to have it said of me, or thought, that I could get a good thing for any
one I was fond of, and was mean enough not to do it, for fear of paltry
jealousy. Mean is much too weak a word; it is downright dishonest, and
what is much worse, cowardly. What is the government meant for, unless
it is to do good to people?"

"Certainly, my dear child, certainly. To the people at large, that is to
say, and the higher interests of the country."

"Can there be any people more at large than Captain Stubbard and his
wife and children? Their elbows are coming out of their clothes, and
they have scarcely got a bed to sleep upon. My income is not enough to
stop to count, even when I get it paid punctually. But every farthing I
receive shall go--that is to say, if it ever does come--into the lap of
Mrs. Stubbard, anonymously and respectfully."

"Pay your bills, first," said the Admiral, taking the weather-gage of
the discussion: "a little bird tells me that you owe a good trifle, even
in Springhaven."

"Then the little bird has got a false bill," replied Dolly, who was not
very easy to fluster. "Who is there to spend sixpence with in a little
hole of this kind? I am not a customer for tea, coffee, tobacco, snuff,
or pepper, nor even for whiting, soles, or conger. Old Cheeseman imports
all the fashions, as he says; but I go by my own judgment. And trumpery
as my income is, very little of it goes into his till. But I should like
to know who told you such a wicked story, father?"

"Things are mentioned in confidence, and I put them together," said the
Admiral. "Don't say another word, or look as if you would be happier if
you had something to cry about. Your dear mother used to do it; and it
beats me always. I have long had my eye upon Captain Stubbard, and I
remember well that gallant action when his three ribs flew away. We
called him Adam, because of his wife coming just when his middle rib
went, and his name was Adam Stubbard, sure enough. Such men, in the
prime of their life, should be promoted, instead of being disabled, for
a scratch