FOR YOUNG SHOOTERS 69 



a dance that the captain has mentally reserved for 

 himself. The mystery is how he has escaped 

 scatheless into what his friends now consider to be 

 assured bachelor-hood. Most of his contemporaries, 

 roystering, healthy, and seemingly flinty-hearted 

 fellows, all of them, have long since gone down, one 

 after another, before some soft and smiling little 

 being, and are now trying to fit their incomes to 

 the keep of perambulators, as well as of dog-carts. 

 But Shabrack has escaped. I found him at his 

 club, and showed him the letter, requesting him at 

 the same time to tell me what he thought of it. I 

 think he was flattered by my appeal, for he insisted 

 on my immediate acceptance of a cigar six inches 

 long, and proposed to me a tempting list of varied 

 drinks. The captain read the letter through twice 

 carefully, and thus took up his parable : 



' Look here, my son, don't you be put off by 

 what the little woman says. She don't mean half 

 of it. Get the hostess to strike ! ' here he laughed 

 loudly ' now that's a real good 'un. Why, they 

 haven't got it in them. Fact is, they can't stand 

 one another's company. She says as much, don't 

 she ? u We get so dull when we are all together." 

 Well, that scarcely looks like goin' off on the strike 



