any
of us, and had been at sea, and we all looked up to him greatly. The
friends of Uncle Boz were mostly commanders and lieutenants, surgeons,
pursers, and marine officers. Now and then he entered on his list a
merchant he might have met abroad, whose sons had no home to go to. By
this time the Grahams were at sea, fitted out by Uncle Boz. Uncle Boz
had had a good deal of money come to him, and it's my belief that he
could have lived ten times better than he did, had he spent it all upon
himself, instead of thinking only how he could do most good with it.
The wheels of the chaise which contained us youngsters rolled so
noiselessly over the snow, that not till the wicket opened, and a secret
bell which communicated with the interior rung, did the tableau I have
described appear in the porch. There it was though, in all its
attractive freshness, by the time we had tumbled, some of us head
foremost, out of the chaise.

There was a blazing fire and a plentiful dinner, and we were all soon as
merry as crickets, telling our adventures, Uncle Boz listening as if
they were important matters of state. It was bitterly cold outside, or
the snow would not have remained as it did so close to the sea. We were
looking forward to skating the next day on a piece of water a mile or so
inland, and we were to build a snow man, and a snow castle, which Uncle
Boz undertook to defend with Bambo against all assailants. Aunt Deborah
not being a combatant, was to be employed in the heroine-like occupation
of making ammunition for both sides, in the shape of snowballs. It was
decided that we would in the first place build a castle, and we were to
commence early the next morning; our only fear was that the snow might
melt, but as there was a very satisfactory biting, black, northerly wind
blowing, there was not much chance of that.

Our conversation all the evening was about saps and counter saps, of
which Uncle Boz remarked that the red-coats ought to know far more than
he did; and this led him to talk of some of the scenes in which he had
taken part, and Bambo was sent for to assist his memory, and together
they enthusiastically fought their battles over again. They were like
Uncle Toby and Corporal Trim, except that the ocean was their field of
glory, and that the cut of the two old seamen's jibs was strongly in
contrast to the figures of their brother red-coats. It was a pleasant
evening, that it was. How their tongues wagged.