He hoped one day, too, to get a glimpse of
some of the clever wits, Mat Prior, Wycherley, Dick Steele, and
others, who haunted the coffee-houses of the capital, and of the
rising young writer, Mr. Addison, not to mention a greater than them
all, the incomparable Sir Isaac Newton. For George had ever been a
great reader, even while he loved a good game as well as any boy in
the land.
It was many a long year, however, ere George Fairburn was destined to
see the mighty capital. Once fairly at sea, the skipper brought out
and mounted his four little guns, to the lad's huge joy.
"You mean business, captain," he remarked with a merry laugh.
"I do, if there comes along a Frenchy who won't leave us alone," the
old fellow replied, "leastways if she isn't too big a craft for us
altogether."
The evening was coming in, the town of Yarmouth faintly visible
through the haze, when suddenly the crew of the _Ouseburn Lassie_
became aware of a big vessel in the offing.
"She's giving chase, by thunder!" cried the skipper, after he had
taken a long look through the glass; and all was excitement on board
the brig. Anxiously all hands watched the stranger, and at last the
shout went up, "She's a Frenchy!"
"Aye, and a big 'un at that," somebody added.
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