rous custom to impress men, willing or not willing,
into the Royal Navy. The more effective, and at the same time just,
method of enrolling men in a naval reserve force had not occurred to our
rulers, and, as a natural consequence, the inhabitants of sea-port towns
and fishing villages were on the constant look-out for the press-gang.

At the time when the man-of-war's boat rowed alongside of the little
jetty of Fairway, an interesting couple chanced to be seated in a bower
at the back of a very small but particularly neat cottage near the
shore. The bower was in keeping with its surroundings, being the half
of an old boat set up on end. Roses and honeysuckle were trained up the
sides of it, and these, mingling their fragrance with the smell of tar,
diffused an agreeable odour around. The couple referred to sat very
close to each other, and appeared to be engaged in conversation of a
confidential nature. One was a fair and rather pretty girl of the
fishing community. The other was a stout and uncommonly handsome man of
five-and-twenty, apparently belonging to the same class, but there was
more of the regular sailor than the fisherman in his costume and
appearance. In regard to their conversation, it may be well, perhaps,
to let them speak for themselves.

"I tell 'ee wot it is, Nelly Blyth," said the man, in a somewhat stern
tone of voice; "it won't suit me to dilly-dally in this here fashion any
longer. You've kept me hanging off and on until I have lost my chance
of gettin' to be mate of a Noocastle collier; an' here I am now, with
nothin' to do, yawin' about like a Dutchman in a heavy swell, an'
feelin' ashamed of myself."

"Don't be so hasty, Bill," replied the girl, glancing up at her lover's
face with an arch smile; "what would you have?"

"What would I have?" repeated the sailor, in a tone of mingled surprise
and exasperation. "Well, I never--no, I never did see nothin' like you
women for bamboozlin' men. It seems to me you're like ships without
helms. One moment you're beatin' as hard as you can to wind'ard; the
next you fall off all of a sudden and scud away right before the breeze;
or, whew! round you come into the wind's eye, an' lay to as if you'd bin
caught in the heaviest gale that ever blow'd since Admiral Noah cast
anchor on Mount Ararat. Didn't you say, not three weeks gone by, that
you'd be my wife? and now you ask me, as cool as an iceberg, what I
would have! Why, Nelly, I would have o