“Well, well, I see how it is, home is too hot for you,” sighed my poor father. “To-morrow morning, please Heaven! I will take you on board, and see what Turbot has to say to the matter. If he’s agreeable, why there won’t be much difficulty in getting you rated as one of the boys aboard.”
My father was as good as his word, and at an early hour the next morning we embarked in a wherry, and pulled alongside the Roarer. When I got on board, and while standing with my father waiting for Sergeant Turbot, who was on duty, it seemed to me as if every man and boy in the ship had gone stark staring mad, rushing and rolling about, tumbling over each other, shouting and bawling at the top of their voices. Presently I heard a ferocious-looking hairy monster of a man growl out, in a voice loud enough to wake a dozen midshipmen, however fast asleep they might have been, “Up all steerage hammocks?” the shrill sound of his whistle piercing through my head. I had been on board men-of-war before when there was no duty going on, and all was quiet and in order. If I had not had hold of my father’s hand, I think I should have gone down the side again into the wherry. In reality, however, it was only Ned Rawlings performing an ordinary piece of morning duty—as gentle and tender-hearted a fellow as ever stepped, in spite of his gruff voice and hairy face, and the “cat” he had sometimes to wield. I have a notion, that every time he laid on that cat, he felt it as acutely as the culprit on whom it was deservedly inflicted. I still felt something like a fish in a tub, trying to escape the dangers I supposed surrounded me, when Sergeant Turbot came along the main deck. He laughed heartily, till his fat sides shook again, when he saw my affrighted countenance, and my father told him I could not make out the cause of all the uproar.
“Why, the men are pretty quiet,” he observed; “they’re pretty much like this at all times, except when they’re sleeping, or at mess, or at quarters.”
My father told him our object.
“That I will, Junker,” he observed at once. “I am sure you would look after a boy of mine if I had one, and I will look after yours. I cannot teach him much seamanship, but I’ll give a hint to those who can, and I’ll look after him, and see that he gets into no mischief, as long as I am in the ship. We are going out to a somewhat trying climate though, and men of my figure are apt to suffer, I am told.”
He cast a momentary glance over himself. It was fortunate for Sergeant Turbot that he was a marine, and still more that he had not to go aloft. On board ship he could do his duty admirably, but on shore his figure was decidedly against him. He was very stout. It was lucky for me that he was so, for I could always find him when I wanted him. At first, I thought that I could run away from him, if desirable; but in that respect I was mistaken, for he could send after me, and have me back pretty quickly. All being arranged, the sergeant undertook to speak to the first-lieutenant; and he had me and my father up, and asking him a few questions, told him to fill up different papers, which he did forthwith, and I was regularly entered as a boy on board the Roarer.
Chapter Three.
Life on the Roarer.
I went back with my father, and the remainder of the day was spent by my stepmother in getting my outfit ready. It was an unusually good one, in consequence of the brigadier’s gift.
“I don’t expect to hear much more about that,” observed my father. “There is a good deal of talk about those sort of people; though, to be sure, the old man and the young one have some feeling; still I don’t see what good they could do you, Jack, even if they wished it. I should not wish you put above your station; though, to be sure, your poor dear mother was a lady herself, that she was, every inch of her, and too good for me. However, Jack, there’s one thing I have got to counsel you: do your duty, tell the truth, and never mind the sneers or laughter of those who try to lead you astray. There is One in heaven who will hear your prayers, and don’t you go and forget to tell Him your wants, and ask Him to do what is best for you. And now, my boy, you have my blessing; and I am sure, that good mother of yours—she who’s gone I mean—will be looking down from wherever she is, and watching over you, and praying for you, if so be she has the power; but of that matter, I must own, I have no certain knowledge, only I do think it’s the work she would like to be employed in, anyhow.”
The next morning I took an affectionate farewell of my brothers and sisters, and very far from an affectionate one of the children of my poor stepmother. She herself, however, wept bitterly, as I went out of the house; my father, and a marine he had got from the barracks, carrying my chest. It was not a very big one, as may be supposed. We had got some distance from the house, when who should I see, scampering after us, and well out of breath, than the young Master Richard.