populous places: his uneventful life was varied enough for his desires.
If he were properly coaxed, he was willing to tell many things about
Nelson; but, strange to say, he was not fond of the great Admiral.
Collingwood was his man, and he always spoke with reverence about the
north-country sailor. He cared very little for glory; and he estimated
men on the simple principle that one kind man is worth twenty clever
ones and a hundred plucky ones. The story of his acquaintance with
Collingwood and Nelson was strange. In 1797 the Veteran was just
nineteen years old; but he had already got command of a little sloop
that plied up the Firth, and he was accounted one of the best sailors on
the coast. His father was a hearty man of eight-and-forty, and had
retired from the sea.

Now it happened that the wealthiest shipowner of the little port had a
very wild and unsteady son, who was a ship captain and sailed one of his
father's vessels. The shipowner was anxious to see some steady man sail
with his lad; so he asked the Veteran's father to go as mate of a barque
which the son was going to take out to Genoa. The terms offered were so
very tempting that the old man decided to take another short spell of
the sea; and when the Veteran next brought his little sloop on to the
Hard, he found his father had run round to Hull in the barque. The young
captain, of whom the old man had taken charge, behaved very badly during
the southerly trip, and in the end had delirium tremens. During the
whole of the night the madman divided his time between giving
contradictory orders and crying out with fear of the dreadful things
which he said were chasing him. On the night after the vessel brought up
at Hull he staggered aboard, and stumbled into the cabin. Sitting down
at the table, he set himself deliberately to insult his mate, who had
been quietly reading. He called the old man a pig, and asked him why he
had not gone to his sty. Finding that all his insults were received with