"I have had very good teaching," Cyril replied, "and hope to be able
to hold my own."

"Then you are not satisfied with this mode of life?" Mistress Dowsett
said.

"I am satisfied with it, Mistress, inasmuch as I can earn money
sufficient to keep me. But rather than settle down for life as a city
scrivener, I would go down to the river and ship on board the first
vessel that would take me, no matter where she sailed for."

"I think you are wrong," Mistress Dowsett said gravely. "My husband
tells me how clever you are at figures, and you might some day get a
good post in the house of one of our great merchants."

"Maybe it would be so," Cyril said; "but such a life would ill suit
me. I have truly a great desire to earn money: but it must be in some
way to suit my taste."

"And why do you want to earn a great deal of money, Cyril?" Nellie
laughed, while her mother shook her head disapprovingly.

"I wish to have enough to buy my father's estate back again," he
said, "and though I know well enough that it is not likely I shall
ever do it, I shall fight none the worse that I have such a hope in
my mind."

"Bravo, lad!" Captain Dave said. "I knew not that there was an estate
in the case, though I did hear that you were the son of a Royalist.
It is a worthy ambition, boy, though if it is a large one 'tis scarce