But there was a happier moment yet in store for him. A week afterward Jack and Jerry O'Brien entered Squire Leverett's study, where sat the Squire and Madam Leverett. The mother uttered a cry of joy and clasped her boy in her arms. Then Jerry O'Brien, taking him by the hand, led him to the Squire.
"Sir," he said, "here is your brave boy. You have reason to be proud of him. I have been promised two things when the navy of the Colonies is formed. One is a Captain's commission for myself, and the other is a midshipman's commission for this lad. He is born for the sea, and to make a landsman of him would be like putting a mackerel in a barnyard to scratch for his living."
The Squire, too moved to speak, silently took one of Jack's hands in both of his, and Madam Leverett, falling on her boy's neck, cried, "How happy am I to have such a boy to give to my country!"
GRANT'S TROUBLESOME SOLDIER.
General Grant used to tell a story of a soldier in a certain regiment during the war who was continually bothering him by asking favors. Grant one day said to him, "Look here; I believe you are the most troublesome man in the Union army."
The man quickly replied, "Why, that's funny, sir!"
"Funny; how do you make it out funny?"
"Because it is just what the enemy says about you."