l
Narborough saw that all was lost unless he could bring up his ships from
the right. Hastily scrawling an order, he called for volunteers to swim
across the boiling water, under the hail of shot and shell. A dozen
sailors at once offered their services, and among them a cabin-boy.
"Why," said the admiral, "what can you do, my fearless lad?" "I can
swim, Sir," the boy replied; "if I be shot, I can be easier spared than
any one else." Narborough hesitated; his men were few, and his position
desperate. The boy plunged into the sea, amid the cheers of the sailors,
and was soon lost to sight. The battle raged fiercer, and, as the time
went on, defeat seemed inevitable. But, just as hope was fading, a
thundering cannonade was heard from the right, and the reserves were
seen bearing down upon the enemy. By sunset the Dutch fleet was
scattered far and wide, and the cabin-boy, the hero of the hour, was
called in to receive the honor due to him. His bearing so won the heart
of the old admiral that he exclaimed, "I shall live to see you have a
flag-ship of your own." The prediction was fulfilled when the cabin-boy,
having become Admiral Cloudesley Shovel, was knighted by the king.

THE GOLDEN GLOVE.

There was a young, rich, and beautiful lady who was about to be married
to a lord. A day or two before the wedding the lord brought his friend,
a gallant and handsome young farmer, to see the lady of his choice. The
lady fell in love at first sight with the farmer, and ere they parted,
the farmer was as deep in love with her.

When the morning of the wedding had come, the lady, love-sick for the
young farmer, instead of betaking herself to the kirk to be married,
took to her bed, and the wedding was put off. Nevertheless, in the
afternoon, she disguised her face, and dressing herself in manly
apparel, went with cross-bow on her shoulder, and with her dogs at her
heels, to hunt on the grounds of the young farmer, which were part of
her own estate.

She crossed and recrossed the fields, whistled and hallooed to her dogs,
without meeting the farmer. As she was beginning to fear that he was
absent, and was about to withdraw, she met him coming up the road.

She professed to be surprised to see him, as she understood he was to be
at the wedding to give away the bride to the lord.

"Ah!" said the young farmer, with a sigh, "I would she were as poor as
myself, that I might ask her to give herself to me."

"Are you, then, in