" he added, looking back at the seamen carrying
the bags; "and you, Sam, shall we lend you a leg, old boy?"

"Tank'ee, gunner--a grand new cork one, if you like!" answered Sam,
grinning and chuckling at his joke; "but ye see my timber one will serve
me, I tink, till I'm laid under hatches. But I no wonder Billy in a
hurry to go along--ha! ha! ha! I call de fine grand bo'sun Billy now
again, jes as I did when he was one little chap aboard de old
_Terrible_. We off service, you know! I once more free man! Out-door
Greenwich pensioner! What more I want?--plenty to eat, nothing to do!
I go wid you and play at your wedding, True Blue--ha! ha! ha! Fancy I,
Sam Smatch, play at Billy True's wedding--once little chap born aboard
de _Terrible_, and often nurse in de old nigger's arms."

"And right glad I am to have you by me, Sam," answered True Blue,
looking kindly at the negro. "You took good care of me--that I'm sure
of--when I was a baby, and we've weathered many a storm together since
in all parts of the world. There's scarcely a friend I should be more
sorry to miss at my wedding than you, if wedding there is to be; but it
is so long since I heard from home, that who can tell what has
happened?"

"Ah, yes--Mary Ogle gone and married some oder sailor maybe! Dat is
what dey petticoat women often do," said Sam with a wink, sticking his
thumb towards the boatswain's ribs.

"No, no. No fear of that, at all events!" exclaimed True Blue
vehemently. "You didn't suppose that I meant that. But how can we tell
that all our friends are alive and well?" he said gravely, and was
silent for a minute. "However," he added in a cheerful tone, "I have no
fears that all will be right, and that, before many evenings are over,
we shall have you fingering your fiddlestick as merrily as ever."

So they went on, cheerfully talking as they proceeded towards Paradise
Row, which, in truth, True Blue hoped would prove a Paradise to him; for
there, since Paul, and Abel, and Peter, had become warrant-officers,
their respective families had come to reside, to be near them when they
came into port.

They, however, had now charge of different ships in ordinary; and as
they had all gone through a great deal of service, they did not expect
to be again sent to sea.

Old Mrs Pringle was still alive and well when True Blue had last heard
from home, and to her house he and his shipmates were now bound. Still,
as they went along, True Blue c