Oh!
I should live like a prince and be a prince _regnant_ in the
bargain."
"Yes, sir, you would be captain and all hands, if that would be any
gratification; but I think you would soon weary of your government,
and be ready to abdicate."
"Perhaps so, Miles; yet the thought is pleasant to me: but for this
dear girl, it would be particularly so. I have very few relatives; the
nearest I have being, oddly enough, your own country-people,
gentlemen. My mother was a native of Boston, where my father, a
merchant, married her; and I came very near being a Yankee myself,
having been born but a week after my parents landed in England. On my
father's side, I have not five recognised relatives, and they are
rather distant; while those on my mother's are virtually all
strangers. Then I never owned a foot of this earth on which we live,
in my life--"
"Nor I," interrupted Marble, with emphasis.
"My father was a younger son; and younger sons in England are
generally lack-lands. My life has been such, and, I may add, my means
such, that I have never been in the way of purchasing even enough
earth to bury me in; and here, you see, is an estate that can be had
for asking. How much land do you fancy there is in this island,
gentlemen? I mean, apart from the beach, the sands and rocks; but
such as has grass, and bears trees--ground that might be tilled, and
rendered productive, without much labour?"
"A hundred thousand acres," exclaimed Marble, whose calculation was
received with a general laugh.
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