companions afloat as his brothers
were by theirs on shore.

Such were the inhabitants of Oaklands. The house itself was a fine old
substantially-built edifice, with thick walls, standing on a gentle
elevation, and overlooking a wide extent of country. The grounds which
surrounded it were large, and contained woods, and shady walks, and
fishponds, or rather lakes, and ornamental flower gardens, and rich
velvety lawns, and kitchen gardens.

A short time before the holidays, Mr Bracebridge had written to his
son, desiring to have the addresses of several of them. What was his
reason for doing this, his father did not tell him.

The holidays began. What a happy Christmas-day the whole family spent
together! It was spent as Christmas-day should be spent--in
affectionate family intercourse, and not in a wild gaiety which is
calculated to drive away all thought and recollection of the great and
glorious event it is intended to celebrate on that day. How happy
everybody was both upstairs and downstairs; what long yarns Frank spun
of his adventures in many lands, and his hair-breadth escapes; how he
made them laugh at some of his stories, and cry, if their hair did not
stand on end, at others, so exciting or so full of horror did they
appear. I should like to repeat some of them, but I have not time to do
so now. Of course everybody was wishing for a frost, that they might
have skating.

"Oh, how delightful it will be!" exclaimed the midshipman. "I have not
put on a pair of skates for the last five years. I have seen ice enough
and to spare in the shape of icebergs, and floes, and fields of ice, but
that is not the sort of ice suitable for skating. A big, thundering
iceberg is a wonderful thing; we nearly got run down by one, or rather
we nearly ran into one, if the truth must be said, when I was in the
`Stag,' only, of course, we always lay the blame on anything but
ourselves; so in this case we blamed the iceberg for getting in our way,
as if it had not just as much right to be there as we had, and as if it
had not been our business to get out of its way. We were going round
Cape Horn, and the master thought fit to make a considerable offing, and
to keep away to the southward. It was my watch on deck. We had a fair
wind on our starboard quarter. Jim Holdfast, whom I took out with me,
and who promises to turn out a prime sailor, was forward. It was a
pitchy dark night. We could barely make out our hands he