Bob Strong's Holidays Part 7

In the morning, after a sound sleep which effectually banished all the ill effects of their impromptu ducking from both Bob and himself, d.i.c.k awoke, or rather was awakened by his hostess in person, to be told that the Captain was waiting and wanted to see him particularly.

"I think too, my boy, it really is time for you to get up," added the lady kindly. "Do you know it's past ten o'clock?"

"Law, mum!" exclaimed d.i.c.k, ashamed of his laziness, having been accustomed at Guildford to turn out at sunrise, that is if he went to bed at all; for his unkind step-father often locked him out of a night when in an especially angry mood. "Law, mum, whatever be I a-doing of a-lying here in broad daylight! I humbly asks yer parding, mum."

"Oh, never mind that, you're not so very late, my poor boy, considering all you went through yesterday and last night," said Mrs Gilmour smiling. "But, come now, you mustn't keep the Captain waiting, or we'll have him trotting upstairs after you himself. Dress as quickly as you can; I have had your things dried at the kitchen fire, and here they are in this chair near the door."

So saying, Mrs Gilmour left the room, and d.i.c.k hopped out of bed immediately afterwards, proceeding to put on his clothes; thinking, poor fellow, as he did so, how shabby and ragged they were, and that they and he were altogether sadly out of place in an apartment which, to his rustic eyes, used only to the surroundings of his village home, appeared a palace.

As soon as he was dressed and opened the door of the room, he found, waiting on the landing, a maidservant, who, first taking him downstairs to the kitchen, where she gave him a good breakfast, afterwards showed him the way to the parlour.

Here Mrs Gilmour and the Captain, with Bob and Nellie, were all a.s.sembled, apparently ready to go out, the ladies having their walking things on.

"A pretty time of day for a youngster like you to be getting up," cried the old sailor jocularly as he entered. "I wonder the bright sun hasn't scorched your eyes out long before this, sir!"

d.i.c.k was commencing an abject apology, but Mrs Gilmour stopped him.

"Oh, never mind the Captain," she said laughing at the poor lad's look of contrition. "He's only 'taking a rise' out of you, as he would call it."

"Humph! is he?" growled the Captain, blinking away and pretending to be very serious. "But, come now, we must be off. I want you to go along with me into Portsmouth; so, get your cap and we'll start at once."

"Mayn't we come too?" shouted Bob and Nellie in one breath together.

"Do say yes, Captain Dresser!"

"Well, I don't know about you, Miss Nellie, for I may have to go into places where little girls may be in the way; besides which, I don't think you would like to leave your aunt all alone, eh?"

"Of course not, dear Captain, I forgot that," said Nellie, accepting this quiet suggestion of the old sailor as a final settlement of the question, without betraying a particle of ill-temper or dissatisfaction.

"I will stop with auntie."

"Ah, you shan't lose anything by doing it, me darlint," smilingly said Mrs Gilmour, giving her an approving little pat on the cheek by way of caress. "You and I, Nell, may have a little expedition of our own, perhaps."

"But I may go with you and d.i.c.k," interposed Bob, by no means content to be left behind. "Mayn't I, Captain?"

"Oh yes, you may go or come, just as you please to call it," replied the Captain, making a move towards the door, with an energetic thump of his malacca cane on the floor. "Look sharp, though, or it will be midday before we're out of the house!"

This contingency, however, did not happen, for within a minute or so he and the two boys were out on the parade; the party being further increased by the presence of Rover, who had been lurking in the pa.s.sage and followed them out un.o.bserved. Not a bark or a gambol betrayed that he was after them, until the Captain on turning round suddenly saw him in their rear, close up to Bob's heels.

"Hullo!" he exclaimed; "I can't have that dog with us. Rover is a very fine fellow and a brave animal too; but, he's somewhat skittish as yesterday's proceedings at the railway-station showed me. I don't want to get into any more sc.r.a.pes with him, such as knocking down harmless old women--she was a tartar, though, by Jove! Besides, I may have to go into the dockyard, and they do not allow dogs in there."

"Don't they?" asked Bob, catching hold of Rover's collar and preparing to take him back to the house. "Not even if they're well-behaved?"

"No, my boy, they draw the line at puppies! I mean those jackanapes of midshipmen and sub-lieutenants, as they call mates now, with their dandified airs. In my time, the reefers weren't half so conceited and didn't try to turn themselves into land swabs as they do now-a-days,"

said the Captain grimly, he being, like most sailors of the old school, a thorough believer in the times gone by. "But, go back now, and take that rascal of a dog in. d.i.c.k and I will wait for you at the corner."

Rover did not like this arrangement at all, but he had to submit to the force of circ.u.mstances; so, Bob disposing of him within doors and closing the outside gate as well for additional precaution, all presently made a fresh start for their destination.

While crossing Southsea Common, the boys were delighted with the sight of the soldiers of the garrison mustered for brigade drill, the troops marching and wheeling and countermarching to the music of the bands, which played such inspiriting airs that even the old Captain could not help keeping step, his trusty malacca coming down with a thump on the springy turf, in time with the rub-a-dub-dub of the drums.

Bob had seen a regiment or two before in London, at parades in front of the Horse Guards, or when reviewed on a small scale in Hyde Park; but, never previously, had he witnessed so many battalions marshalled together in all the pomp of war as now--the men formed up in double columns of companies, with the sunlight glinting on the bayonets of their sloped rifles and their legs looking like those of gigantic centipedes as they stepped forward in changing ground to the left, first the red stripe showing on one trouser-leg and then only the dark cloth of the other.

"How funny they look!" exclaimed Bob, lost in admiration as he took note of these little details, not a thing escaping him, the hoa.r.s.e commands of the officers, the galloping to and fro of mounted _aides-de-camp_ and 'orderlies,' the tooting bugle-calls, each in turn attracting his attention. "All move as if they were one man!"

"Aye, they march well, my boy," replied the Captain, taking advantage of the opportunity to point a moral lesson. "But, recollect it's all owing to discipline and obedience to orders!"

Beyond the troops, the blue sea could be seen reflecting the hue of the cloudless sky overhead, its surface dotted here and there with the white sail of some yacht or other, pa.s.sing between Cowes and Spithead, or beating out into the Channel in the distance; while, in the more immediate foreground, anch.o.r.ed abreast of one of the harbour forts, was a modern ironclad man-of-war.

"What is that?" inquired Bob, pointing in the direction where the vessel lay, looking like some marine monster asleep on the water.

"Humph! you may well ask the question," growled the Captain, jobbing his stick down with an extra thump. "That is what they call a 'ship' now-a- days! She's an 'armour-clad' of the latest type, with all the improvements, though very different to the craft I and your Uncle Ted were accustomed to see in the good old times when ships were ships!"

"Why, Captain Dresser," said Bob sympathetically, "she's just like the roof of a house!"

"You're not far out, my boy. They all resemble floating barns more than anything else," grumbled the old sailor, bewailing the gallant frigates and three-deckers of the past. "But, come on now, let us get to the dockyard, and I will show you one or two vessels of the right sort that we still have got left, thank G.o.d, to remind us of what England's navy once was!"

With these words, he dragged the boys, much against their will, away from the busy scene on the common and past the last remaining bastion of the old fortifications that once encircled Portsmouth; and, finally getting into the town he dived through all sorts of queer little streets and alleys, and then along the new road running by the side of the Gunwharf until they reached the Hard.

Here, stopping outside an outfitter's shop not far from the dockyard, the Captain seized hold of d.i.c.k and pulled him forwards towards the door.

"Do you know what I'm going to do with you, eh, you young rascal?" he asked him, with a chuckle which took all the sternness out of his threatening tones. "Can you guess?"

"No, sir," replied the lad; but, evidently did not antic.i.p.ate anything very dreadful, for he grinned all over his face. "I carn't!"

"I'm going to give you a new rig-out," went on the other. "Do you know what that is, eh?"

"No, sir," again answered d.i.c.k, thinking though that the Captain perhaps meant something to eat. "I dunno."

"Well, come in here and you shall see."

So saying, the old sailor led the way into the shop, where on his giving a few short, sharp, and curt directions to an attendant, d.i.c.k was taken in hand and twisted this way and that and measured; the whilom ragged runaway being in the end apparelled in a bran-new suit of navy serge that made him look like a smart young reefer, very different indeed to the ragged runaway who had forced his way into the railway-carriage frightening Bob and Nellie during their journey Portsmouth-wards from Guildford twenty-four hours before.

"There, what do you think of yourself now?" asked the Captain, wheeling him round in front of a cheval gla.s.s so that he could see his reflection in the mirror. "Eh, you rascal?"

d.i.c.k did not say anything; but, the look, of mingled wonder, self- satisfaction and grat.i.tude, that overspread his speaking face more than rewarded the good-hearted sailor for his thoughtful generosity.

"He only wants his 'air cut and a pair o' decent boots, sir, and then he'll be a reg'ler tiptopper," suggested the shopman. "I wouldn't know him now for the same chap ag'in, sir!"

"Thank you, my friend, for the hint," said the Captain politely. "You can fit him with some boots, and we'll see about the ''air' when we get outside!"

Bob, of course, went into convulsions of laughter when the Captain thus mimicked the man's disregard of his aspirates.

The shopman's failing in this respect was all the more amusing from the fact that the poor fellow was quite unaware of his 'little weakness'; and, one boy's merriment affecting the other, while the Captain joined in from sympathy, they all went out of the shop in the highest of spirits, the old sailor before leaving directing the attendant to send home another suit of clothes with a complete sailor's kit, so that d.i.c.k might have what he called "a regular rig-out."

Subsequently, d.i.c.k had his hair cut, after which the Captain took him into the dockyard, with the intention of his being entered for service in the Navy, the boy having expressed so strong a desire to go to sea.

However, as he was not broad enough in his chest measurements, although sufficiently tall for his age, his joining a training ship had to be postponed until our runaway had, as the old warrant officer at the depot said, "Stowed a lot more beef and bread in his skid."

But, even beyond this material point, Captain Dresser was reminded by this courteous veteran of something he had entirely forgotten; namely, that d.i.c.k would have to produce a certificate of birth to show his proper age, and also a paper containing the written consent to his going to sea of his parents, or guardians in the case of his being an orphan-- which he was nearly if not quite--before d.i.c.k would be permitted to join "Her Majesty's Service."