must feel, Lieutenant Scudamore!"

"I am not at all happy at losing dear friends," the young man answered,
gently, as he turned away and patted the breech of a gun, upon which
there was a little rust next day; "that feeling comes later in life, I
suppose."

The Admiral was not attending to them now, but absorbed in the
brief account of the conflict, begun by Captain Honyman in his own
handwriting, and finished by his voice, but not his pen. Any one
desirous to read this may do so in the proper place. For the present
purpose it is enough to say that the modesty of the language was
scarcely surpassed by the brilliancy of the exploit. And if anything
were needed to commend the writer to the deepest good will of the
reader, it was found in the fact that this enterprise sprang from warm
zeal for the commerce of Springhaven. The Leda had been ordered on
Friday last to protect the peaceful little fishing fleet from a crafty
design for their capture, and this she had done with good effect, having
justice on her side, and fortune. The particulars of the combat were not
so clear, after the captain's three fingers were gone; but if one made
proper allowance for that, there was not very much to complain of.
The Admiral considered it a very good report; and then put on his
spectacles, and thought it still better.

"Why! why! why!" he said--for without affectation many officers had
caught the style of His then Gracious Majesty--"What's this? what's
this? Something on the other side, in a different man's handwriting, and
mighty difficult to read, in my opinion. Stubbard, did you ever see such
a scrawl? Make it out for me. You have good eyes, like a hawk, or the
man who saw through a milestone. Scudamore, what was his name? You
know."

"Three fingers at five pounds apiece per annum as long as he lives!"
Captain Stubbard computed on his own: "fifteen pounds a year perhaps for
forty years, as you seem to say how young he is; that comes to just 600
pounds, and his hand as good as ever"--("I'll be hanged if it is, if he
wrote this!" the Admiral interjected)--"and better, I must say, from a
selfish point of view, because of only two nails left to clean, and
his other hand increased in value; why, the scale is disgraceful,
iniquitous, boobyish, and made without any knowledge of the human frame,
and the comparative value of its members. Lieutenant Scudamore, look at
me. Here you see me without an ear, damaged in the fore-hatch, and with