Page:The Naval Officer (1829), vol. 1.djvu/21

 ingratitude in absconding from the best of masters, and the most affectionate, tender, and motherly of all school-dames.

The usher swallowed all this, and I soon made him swallow a great deal more. We passed near the side of a pond, the shoals and depths of which were well known to me. I looked at Tom out of the corner of my eye, and motioned him to let me go; and, like a mackarel out of a fisherman's hand, I darted into the water, got up to my middle, and then very coolly, for it was November, turned round to gaze on my escort, who stood at bay, and looked very much like fools. The usher, like a low-bred cur, when he could no longer bully, began to fawn; he entreated and he implored me to think on "my Papa and Mamma; how miserable they would be, if they could but see me; what an increase of punishment I was bringing on myself by such obstinacy."

He held out, by turns, coaxes and threats; in short, every thing but an amnesty, to which I considered myself entitled, having