It is true, that he was very fond of money; but that, they
said, was all the better, as he could not take it away with him when he
died. An end, however, was soon put to all their worldly ideas, for a
year after I was born, my father was drowned at sea, his vessel and the
whole of her crew being lost on the Texel sands; and my mother found
herself a widow, with a child scarcely weaned, when she was but
twenty-two years of age.
"It was supposed that my mother would still have sufficient to live
upon, as the ship had been insured at two-thirds of her value; but, to
the astonishment of everybody, Mr. Masterman contrived to make it
appear that it was his two-thirds of the vessel which had been
insured."
"What is insurance?" inquired William.
"Insurance, my dear boy, is paying a certain sum to people who are
called underwriters, that in case the vessel or cargo is lost or
damaged, the loss or damage is made good to the owners of the vessel or
cargo. You pay in proportion to the risk incurred. Supposing you wished
to insure one thousand pounds on a vessel or cargo, and ten per cent
was required, you would, if the vessel came home safe, pay the
underwriters one hundred pounds; if, on the contrary, the vessel was
lost, the underwriters would have to pay you one thousand pounds, the
sum which you had insured.
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