I agree Rachel G and wonderfully said. I only wish to add to the reasons why Poor Richard is skewered so harshly it hard to imagine anything good about him. Poor Richard’s unvarnished history also justifies Frederick’s moment of “self-amusement” (7) when he realizes who Mrs. Musgrove is so tenderly memorializing. If the narrator had not presented the harsh truth about Poor Richard so bluntly our captain would appear an insensitive and mean-spirited jerk for being amused however briefly by a mother’s grief. As you suggest instead Frederick is shown to be more than a spirited man of action but a kind and considerate one as well. This is an important point for me since Frederick goes on to be a considerable jerk to Anne at the pianoforte in the same chapter. (;D)