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s boy's mind."
"I don't know about corrupting, Tom," said the captain, smiling, "but he certainly does seem to be putting some queer things into his head."
"So it seems. Teaches him to drink the King's health in water."
"No, he didn't, uncle," said the boy, cracking another walnut.
"Yes, he did, sir. How dare you contradict me! Confound you, sir, if I had you aboard ship I'd mast-head you."
"No, you wouldn't, uncle," said the boy, dipping a piece of freshly-peeled walnut in the salt and crunching it between his teeth.
"What, sir?"
"I say you would not," replied the boy.
"And pray why, you young dog?"
"Because you'd know father wouldn't like it."
Captain Belton laughed and sipped his port, and the admiral blew out his cheeks.
"Look here, brother Harry," he cried; "is this my nephew Sydney, or some confounded young son of a sea-lawyer?"
"Oh, it's Syd, sure enough," said the captain.
"Then he's grown into an insolent, pragmatical young cock-a-hoop upstart; and hang it, I should like to spread-eagle him till he came to his senses."
The boy, who was peeling a scrap of walnut, gave his uncle a sidelong look and laughed.
"Ah, I would, sir, and no mistake," cried the admiral, fiercely. "Harry, you don't half preserve discipline in the ship. Here, Syd, it's time you were off to sea."
The boy took another walnut and crushed it, conscious of the fact that his father was watching him intently.
"I don't want to go to sea, uncle," said the boy at last, as he picked off the scraps of broken shell from his walnut.
"What?" roared the admiral. "Here you, sir, say that again."
"I don't want to go to sea, uncle."
"You--don't--want--to go--to sea, sir?"
"No, uncle."
"Well, I am stunned," said the old gentleman, rapidly pouring out and tossing off a glass of port. "Brother Harry, what have you to say to this?"
"That it is all nonsense. The boy does not know his own mind."