MR. WILTON.  “A father returned from the sea-coast to his own home, and brought with him, for his son, some beautiful shells, which he had picked up on the shore.  The delight of the boy was great.  He took them, and sorted them, and counted them over.  He called all his playfellows, to show them his treasures; and they could talk of nothing but the beautiful shells.  He daily found new beauties, and gave each of them a name.  But in a few months, the boy’s father said to himself, ’I will now give him a still higher pleasure; I will take him to the coast of the sea itself; there he will see thousands more of beautiful shells, and may choose for himself.’  When they came to the beach, the boy was amazed at the multitude of shells that lay around, and he went to and fro and picked them up.  But one seemed still more beautiful than another, and he kept always changing those he had gathered for fresh shells.  In this manner he went about changing, vexed, and out of humor with himself.  At length, tired of stooping and comparing, and selecting, he threw away all he had picked up, and, returning home weary of shells, he gave away all those which had afforded him so much pleasure.  Then his father was sorry, and said, ’I have acted unwisely; the boy was happy in his small pleasures, and I have robbed him of his simplicity, and both of us of a gratification.’  Now, my boy, does not this advise you to be content with such things as you have?  King Solomon says, ’Better is a little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure and trouble therewith;’ and surely your trouble would be largely increased were you to have a whole fleet of ships to rig and fit up against next summer; and I rather think Emma would be bringing forward various objections, as her time would be required to prepare the sails and dress the sailors.”

“Indeed, dear papa,” said Emma, “I have had quite enough trouble with his ‘merchantman,’ for George is so very particular.  I am sure I could not dress the marines for a man-of-war:  they require an immense deal of care in fitting their clothes:  loose trousers and check shirts are easy to make, but tight jackets and trousers, with all the other et ceteras required to dress a marine, would be more than I should like to undertake, as I feel convinced I could not do it to the admiral’s satisfaction.”

CHARLES.  “George, shall I give you the dictionary definition of an admiral?”

GEORGE.  “I know what an admiral is.  He is an officer of the first rank; but I do not know what the dictionary says.”

CHARLES.  “Then I will tell you how to distinguish him:  according to Falconer, an admiral may be distinguished by a flag displayed at his main-top-gallant-mast-head.”

This caused a burst of merriment, when Emma exclaimed, “That sounds very droll, Charles, but I understand it:  it refers to the admiral’s ship, does it not, papa?”

MR. WILTON.  “Yes, my dear.  The Sicilians were the first by whom the title was adopted in 1244:  they took it from the Eastern nations, who often visited them.  Well, George, do not you think you had better be content with your merchant-ship, because, then, you can reckon on Emma’s services?”