re was a reunion of the three
sisters at Keswick, though one of the husbands, Lovel, was
dead. Here Southey entered steadily and industriously on the
life of an author for livelihood; it was by no means
unremunerative. Southey's output of work, both prose and
verse, was very voluminous, and its quality could not but
suffer. He was appointed poet-laureate in 1813; and received a
government pension of L160 a year from 1807, which was
increased by L300 a year in 1835. He died on March 21, 1843.
In a prefatory note to that peerless model of short
biographies, the "Life of Nelson," which appeared in 1813, and
is considered his most important work, Southey describes it as
"clear and concise enough to become a manual for the young
sailor, which he may carry about with him till he has
treasured up the example in his memory and in his heart."

_I.--A Captain at Twenty_

Horatio, son of Edmund and Catherine Nelson, was born on September 29,
1758, in the parsonage of Burnham Thorpe, a Norfolk village, where his
father was rector. His mother's maiden name was Suckling; her
grandmother was an elder sister of Sir Robert Walpole, and this child
was named after his godfather, the first Lord Walpole. Mrs. Nelson died
in 1767, leaving eight children, and her brother, Captain Maurice
Suckling, R.N., visited the widower, and promised to take care of one of
the boys.

Three years later, when Horatio was twelve years old, he read in the
newspaper that his uncle was appointed to the Raisonnable, and urged his
father to let him go to sea with his Uncle Maurice.

The boy was never strong, but he had already given proofs of a resolute
heart and a noble mind. Captain Suckling took an interest in him, and
sent him on a first voyage in a merchant ship to the West Indies, and
then, as coxswain, with the Arctic expedition of 1773, when Horatio
showed his courage by attacking a Polar bear.

A voyage to the East Indies followed, and gave him the rank of
midshipman. But the tropical climate reduced him almost to a skeleton;
he lost for a time the use of his limbs, and was sent home as his only
chance of life. He returned under great depression of spirits. In later
years he related how the despair was cleared away by a glow of
patriotism, in which his king and country came vividly before his mind.
"Well, then," he exclaimed, "I will be a hero, and, confiding in
Providence, I