HOME AT THE HAVEN.

all the grand sea-fights that had taken place when he
was a little midshipman,-those especially in which
Lord Nelson had distinguished himself. Edward was
sure he never should be tired of hearing all about Lord
Nelson, and he longed for the time when he should go
to Portsmouth to see the Victory," the ship in which
he was killed, and which his uncle promised to show
him some day.
 Lucy, meantime, went on with her mother much
as she usually did, wherever they were, with her books
and her work. She was very happy, and she liked
the pleasant garden and the pretty country walks very
much, but she would have been glad to have had a
young companion of her own age, or to have been a
little more with Edward. It was impossible, too, for
her to take so much pleasure as Edward in her uncle's
talk about ships, for in fact she did not half under.
stand what it was all about, from the strange sailor's
expressions that he made use of. She was a long time
before she found out that starboard and larboard meant
the right and left sides of a ship, fore and aft, the
front and back parts, and when her uncle talked
of "jib-booms," and "foretop-gallants," and about
" taking the sun," and "getting soundings," it seemed
to be quite another language, and she despaired of
ever being able to understand it all. Regularly every
evening, when her uncle and Edward came in to tea,
when it would have been so pleasant to have heard
what they had been doing all the afternoon, they were
sure to have some long story about a shipwreck, or
about one of Nelson's sea-fights to finish off, which,
for want of having heard the beginning, was quite un-
intelligible to her; and very often all the cups and
saucers and plates would be arranged about the table,
to show the positions of the different vessels at the