“Not be a doctor!” said the captain, sharply. “Then pray, sir, what do you mean to be?”
“A sailor, father.”
“What?” cried the brothers in chorus.
“And I want to go to sea at once.”
“You do, Syd?”
“Yes, father. I saw it all when I’d gone away, and I came back for that.”
“Hurrah!” cried the admiral, starting from his seat, and dropping back with a groan of pain. “Bless my heart!” he cried, “how sore I am! But hurrah! all the same. You’ll be a middy, my boy.”
“Yes, uncle. I want to be at once.”
“And you’ll try to make yourself a good officer, my boy?” cried his father, leaning over the table to catch his son’s hand.
“Yes, father, as hard as ever I can.”