spectable!" (with scorn); "why, Richard, you're simply _splendid_!
And oh! you do look every inch a sailor."

"I thought I would let you see me in full uniform before packing up my
baggage," said Dick, by way of apology for his childish display. "Look
at the brass buttons, Win, and the badge on my cap; they make me feel
as if I were a sailor already."

Winnie duly admired.

"I hope you'll have a good voyage, and not find the work too hard," she
whispered afterwards, and the boy answered.

"Win," he began impressively, "I intend putting my whole 'shoulder to
the wheel.' If I cannot work with the brain, I will strive my very
best with hand and heart, and do my duty come what may. I mean to be a
true man, and live an honest, upright life, not in order to gain every
one's good opinion (though of course I should dearly like that too),
but because it is right."

Winnie's eyes were shining. "I told you so," she said, clapping her
hands joyously. "You'll be a king amongst men yet. And oh, how
proudly our father will some day talk of 'my sailor son!'" The boy's
face flushed with pleasure. "But, Dick, you won't care less for me
when you become both good and great; will you?" and the pretty voice
had a wistful ring in it as Winnie neared the close of her sentence.

"Good! why, you're an angel compared with me, Win," said the boy
lovingly; "but we'll both try our best, dear. I'm a great, rough boor
of a lad, Win, and you're such a dainty, fairy creature. But think how
grand it would be to know that every day you at home and I out on the
ocean were striving to do our duty and live as we ought to live. I've
been all wrong in the past, I know, and it is little wonder the others
don't care much about me; but I mean to strike out afresh and begin all
over again. See here, Winnie; this is my farewell gift to you. I
thought you would prize it more than anything else," and Dick placed a
beautiful pocket Bible in his sister's hands.

Winnie touched the little volume reverently, and the eyes of the
listener behind the curtains grew dim as the child's soft voice
replied, "I cannot thank you as I would, Dick, for your lovely present;
but I love you dearly, dearly. I shall keep it always close beside me,
and read a portion every day. Bow down your head, dear boy, and let me
kiss you for your goodness."

Dick submitted to the caress, and then invited Winnie up to his room in
order to inspect a few presents he had received