ans to obtain a commission. Hard necessity,
however, left no room for mere scruples; something he must do, and that
something was narrowed to the one single career of a soldier.

He was practical enough in a certain sense, and he soon resolved on his
line of action; he would reserve just so much as would carry him back to
England, and remit the remainder of what he had to his mother.

This would amount to nigh eighty pounds,--a very considerable sum to one
whose life was as inexpensive as hers. The real difficulty was how to
reconcile her to the thought of his fallen condition, and the hardships
she would inevitably associate in her mind with his future life. "Ain't
I lucky," cried he in his bitterness, and trying to make it seem like a
consolation,--"ain't I lucky, that, except my poor dear mother, I have
not one other in the whole world to care what comes to me,--none other
to console, none other before whom I need plead or excuse myself! My
failure or my disgrace are not to spread a widecast sorrow. They will
only darken one fireside, and one figure in the corner of it."

His heart was full of Alice all the while, but he was too proud to utter
her name even to himself. To have made a resolve, however, seemed to
rally his courage again; and when the boatman asked him where he should
go next, he was so far away in his thoughts that he had some difficulty
to remember what he had been actually engaged in.

"Whereto?"

"Well, I can't well tell you," said he, laughing. "Isn't that schooner
English,--that one getting underway yonder? Shove me aboard of her."

"She's outward bound, sir."

"No matter, if they 'll agree to take me," muttered he to himself.

The craft was "hauling short" on the anchor as Tony came alongside
and learned that she was about to sail for Leghorn, having failed in
obtaining a freight at Naples; and as by an accident one of the crew
had been left on shore, the skipper was too willing to take Tony so far,
though looking, as he remarked, far more like a swell landsman than an
ordinary seaman.

Once outside the bay, and bowling along with a smart breeze and a calm
sea, the rushing water making pleasant music at the bow, while the helm
left a long white track some feet down beneath the surface, Tony felt,
what so many others have felt, the glorious elation of being at sea. How
many a care "blue water" can assuage, how many a sorrow is made bearable
by the fresh breeze that strains the cordage, an