As to his terrors, he took it for granted that an officer of H.M.S.
Calypso, had left them behind, and in fact, he naturally forgot and
passed over what he had not been shielded from, while his hereditary
love of the sea really made those incidental to his profession much
more endurable than the bullying he had undergone at school.
We were very happy that Christmas, and very proud of our boys. One
evening we were treated to a box at the pantomime, and even I was
able to go to it. We put our young sailor and our sister in the
forefront, and believed that every one was as much struck with them
as with the wonderful transformations of Goody-Two-Shoes under the
wand of Harlequin. Brother-like, we might tease our one girl, and
call her an affected little pussy cat, but our private opinion was
that she excelled all other damsels with her bright blue eyes and
pretty curling hair, which had the same chestnut shine as Griff's--
enough to make us correct possible vanity by terming it red, though
we were ready to fight any one else who presumed to do so. Indeed
Griff had defended its hue in single combat, and his eye was treated
for it with beefsteak by Peter in the pantry. We were immensely,
though silently, proud of her in her white embroidered cambric
frock, red sash and shoes, and coral necklace, almost an heirloom,
for it had been brought from Sicily in Nelson's days by my mother's
poor young father.
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