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‘in his last harbox
142 . BEN BRACE.
ward--] had Jost my old messinate and my
friend,
Susan endeavored to cheer me. ‘‘ When
‘om is buried,” said she, ‘you will leave
Greenwich, and cast off that livery, won't
you 2” .
“ Never, Susan!’’ said J, in a firm voice.
“What! cast off the reward of my ‘ser-
vices? No. My coat is of itself a certi-
ficate that the man who wears it has done
lis duty, and that the country has not been
unuindful of his services.”
““T cannot see the necessity of your re-
maining here, Ben,” she said. ‘* You do
not know the value of money—you throw it |:
away without thought, contented with the
allowance of the Hospital; but I know you
will think of me. It is hard to be con-
demned to live here, although perhaps with
money enough to be comfortable elsewhere.”
“You may buy the Observatory if you
like, if that will make you comfortable ; but
I will not start my anchors, for I'm moored
for life. I think more of myself in this uni-
form, Susan,” said I, laying down my pipe,
_for I was in grief and I smoked, “ than if I
was a lord of the Admiralty.”
“Bless you! Ben, I always knew that
your heart was warm,” said Susan, for she
said that my head was stricken; ‘“ but now
Tom is dead, whit more can you-do for
him? so leave this place as soon as you
”
“Not I. I mst go and see him moored
I have got also to place
the last rigging uver his mast-head, to carry
him ty his grav, and see him covered up,
and then — -”
“Ah!” interrupted Susan, with a tear,
“you seem to think more about your friend
than your wire.”
“ Susan,” I replied, “ that’s the first un-
kind word you ever uttered since our mar-
riage. Before we talk any more about this
business, don’t you think it would be as well
to wait until we know what old Tapes has
left us? Come, dame, kiss and let us re-
main friends! I Jo believe,” said I, as T
passed my sleeve over my face, “I am an
old fool.” I tos. up my hat and walked
away.
All was done +» Tom had desired. I set
to work to pare! his tail with new ribbon.
I bought the s!eps he had mentioned, and
pat them in kis coffin; and when he was
rigged in his shirt and trowsers, I fastened
the medals over his heart. I carried him,
with some others to assist me, to his grave:
I-threw the earth over him myself; and
when all the rest went away, I lingered by
the: side of the grave. The rain fell, the
chill air of evening blew upon my old frame,
I-felt like.a crazy old craft, separated from
the convoy with which she sailed; dismasted
in'a gale, a plank started, the pumps broken,
-
coward. Slowly and silently I straggled to
the IIospital. Immediately I Jay down on
my bed, I felt a cold shiver run through me,
and sleep, which before came to mo ag my
day’s relief, this night never came at all. 1
4ad unmanned ‘ne more than that of the fifty
nen on board the Victory, before sho re-
turned a shot, at Trafalgar.
a
CHAPTER XXXII.
il. You lie, U believe.
King. Lie! lic! how strange it seems to me 9 be
talked to in this style!
Wil, Come, coine, sirrah, confess,
King and Miller of Mansfield
’
>
In the morning when I rose, a strange
feeling was somehow all over me; my back
ached with pain, and I. felt through all my
limbs as if a severe rheumatism had attack-
ed me. I was hardly able to dress myself;
and when I went to Susan, her first remark
was, that I looked very—very ill. I had
fixed this day to attend the Jawyers; and as
I was not on the doctor’s list I wished to
have the business all settled as quickly as
possible; for whilst I lay thinking of ‘Tom
about midnight, I noticed a strange noise at
the window, which I imagined to be what I
had heard called a death-watch. These
pains and aches at my age, moreover, were
a kind of jog which shook me a little.
Looking up Tackle’s confession (which
might have been the‘history of his life, for
all I knew—for the seal had never been
touched by me, although, in covering the
packet over with some other paper, I had
placed another seal directly over 'Tackle’s),
I thought to myself I won't open it, but
take it just as it is. It will show that I
never looked at the secret orders, but kept
them as snug and as fast as lock and ‘key
could make them. TI felt very ill, but the
necessity of going to London gave me a
little courage, which I backed up by a small
drop of Dutch resolution, and getting into
one of those long hearses with windows,
which they call omnibuses,'] poked myself
up in the further corner, and there came to
an anchor. I waited a long time before we
made sail! So, by way of amusement, and
whilst the man outside kept watching me, I
took the confession out of my pocket, and
began to tear off my cover. It happened
that at this moment, another omnibus drove
up alongside of us, and a bit of a squabble
arose. I looked out, and kept tearing off
the cover, until I began to‘feel that it was
off. Looking at it, I saw thmt Tackle’s seal
had stuck to the brown paper covering,
which J had torn off clean enough. I now
rememl ‘red what the lawyer had said about
her crew disheartened, and her captain a
thought of Tom without ceasing; his death -
it, if i¢ was feund that I had opened it.
al