The honest tar answered my grandfather, that it was true he had sent me to school, but it had cost him nothing; as to my making small progress, he was well-informed as how Rory was the best scholar of his age in all the country.  “Thank you for your courteous offer of binding the lad apprentice to a tradesman.  I suppose you would make a tailor of him, would you.  I had rather see him hanged, d’ye see.  Come along, Rory, I perceive how the land lies, my boy; let’s tack about—­i’faith, while I have a shilling, thou sha’n’t want a sixpence.  Bye, old gentleman, you’re bound for the other world, but damnably ill provided for the voyage.”

Thus ended our visit, and we returned to the village, my uncle muttering curses all the way against the old shark and the young fry that surrounded him.

II.—­I Arrive in London

A few weeks after our first visit, we were informed that the old judge, conscious of his approaching end, had made his will, and desired to see all his descendants.  So my uncle set out with me a second time, and when we entered his chamber we found my grandfather in his last agonies.  My uncle approached him with these words:  “How fare ye, old gentleman?—­Lord have mercy upon your poor sinful soul.  Here’s poor Rory come to see you before you die, and receive your blessing.  What, man!  Don’t despair—­you have been a great sinner, ’tis true.  What then?  There’s a righteous judge above—­ain’t there?—­Yes, yes, he’s agoing—­He minds me no more than a porpoise, the land crabs will have him, I see that—­his anchor’s apeak, i’faith.”

In a few minutes we were convinced of my grandfather’s decease, by a dismal yell uttered by the young ladies in his apartment.

It was not till after the funeral that the will was read, and the reader can scarce conceive the astonishment and mortification that appeared, when the attorney pronounced aloud, the young squire sole heir of all his grandfather’s estate, personal and real, and that there were no legacies.

My uncle at once decided, though he could ill afford it, to give me university education; and accordingly settled my board and other expenses at a town not many miles distant, famous for its colleges, whither we repaired in a short time.

In a few days after, my uncle set out for his ship, and I began to consider my precarious situation; that my sole dependence was on the generosity of one man.

I at once applied myself with great care to my studies, and in the space of three years I understood Greek very well, and was pretty far advanced in mathematics.

Then one day my landlady’s husband put two letters in my hand, from my uncle.  The first was to my landlord, explaining that he had fought a duel with his captain, and in consequence had been obliged to sheer off from his ship.

The second was to me, assuring me that all would be well some day.