“The brat means, ma’am,” responded Jack as he solemnly cut a large quid of tobacco and placed it in his cheek, “as how he’s did his duty—no more and no less—but, like all brats, he’s makin’ a big hullabaloo over jest a-doin’ of his duty, like ’twas sumpin’ extryordinary. I don’t go for to say as he ain’t a smart chap—but he’s had adwantages, bein’ took young into the navy, where most of the smart men is found, ma’am—and I think he’ll live to be a credit and a comfort to you, ma’am.”
“He will, if he only does his duty just as it lies before him,” said the widow softly, and kissing Dicky’s freckled nose.
“I’ll try to, mammy,” answered Dicky sturdily.
And he kept his promise very faithfully. The day came, when the war was over and America was free, that his mother saw him captain of a fine ship and able to give her a better house to live in than she had ever known in all her life. Jack Bell took possession of the little cottage, where he spent many happy years, and always pointed to the brave, bright, and successful Captain Richard Stubbs as a monument of what “bein’ ketched young and put into the navy” would do for a man.
FOOTNOTES
[1]The sailors’ name for a marine.
[2]Citizen.
[3]The appliance for hanging men at the yardarm.
[4]The songs in this book are not original.
[5]This song is not original, but is taken from an old naval song book, very popular in the last century. The incidents concerning this song and General Prescott’s words on the occasion are historically accurate.