Paddy Finn Part 6

I stepped into the boat, and the men shoved off. My uncle stood watching me as we descended the stream. Again and again he waved his hand, and I returned his salute. He was still standing there when a bend of the river shut him out from my sight. I was too much engaged with my thoughts to listen to what the boatmen said, and I suspect they thought me either too dull or too proud to talk to them. As we pulled up on the larboard side, thinking that I was now somebody, I shouted to some men I saw looking through the ports to come down and lift my chest on board, though how that was to be done was more than I could tell. A chorus of laughs was the reply.

Presently I heard a gruff voice say, "Send a whip down there, and have that big lumber chest, or whatever it is, up on deck." My chest was quickly hauled up, and as quickly transferred by the orders of the lieutenant in charge of the watch below, before Mr Saunders' eyes had fallen on it. I mounted the side in as dignified a way as I could, saluting the flag on reaching the deck, as my uncle had told me to do.

I had recognised Tom Pim, who was ready to receive me. "You must go to the first lieutenant,--he's in the gun-room,--and say, 'Come aboard, sir,' and then when you're dismissed make your way into the berth," he said.

"But how am I to be after finding the gun-room; is it where the guns are kept?" I asked.

Tom laughed at my simplicity. "No; it's where the gun-room officers, the lieutenants and master, the doctor, and purser, and lieutenant of marines, mess. They all mess together, as do the mates, and we the midshipmen, the second master and master's a.s.sistant, the clerks and the a.s.sistant-surgeon."

"And have you no ensign?" I asked.

"No; there are none in the marines, and so we have no soldiers in our berth," he answered; "but let's come along, I'll show you the way, and then you'll be in time for dinner." We descended to the gun-room door, where Tom left me, bidding me go in and ask for the first lieutenant. I didn't see him, but one of the other officers, of whom I made inquiries, pointed me to the first lieutenant's cabin.

I knocked at the door. "Come in," answered a gruff voice. I found the lieutenant with his shirt-sleeves tucked up, he having just completed his morning ablutions, an old stocking on one fist and a needle and thread in the other, engaged in darning it.

"Come on board, sir," I said.

"Very well, youngster," he answered; "I should scarcely have known you in your present proper uniform. There's nothing like being particular as to dress. I'll see about placing you in a watch. You'll understand that you're to try and do your duty to the best of your abilities."

"Shure it's what I hope to do, sir," I answered briskly; "and I'm mighty glad you like my uniform."

"I didn't say I liked it, youngster,--I said it was proper according to the regulations. Turn round, let me see. There is room for growing, which a midshipman's uniform should have. You'll remember always to be neat and clean, and follow the example I try to set you youngsters."

"Yes, sir," I answered, my eyes falling on a huge patch which the lieutenant had on one of the knees of his trousers.

"Now you may go!" he said. "Understand that you're not to quit the ship without my leave, and that you must master the rules and regulations of the service as soon as possible, for I can receive no excuse if you infringe them."

Altogether I was pretty well satisfied with my interview with old Rough-and-Ready, and hurrying out of the gun-room I directed my course for the young gentlemen's berth, as it was called, which was some way further forward on the starboard side. I intended, after making my appearance there, to go in search of Larry, but the mulatto steward and a boy came hurrying aft along the deck with steaming dishes, which they placed on the table, and I found that the dinner was about to commence.

"Glad to see you, Paddy," said Jack Nettleship, who had already taken his place at the head of the table. "You look less like a play-actor's apprentice and more like an embryo naval officer than you did when you first came on board. Now sit down and enjoy the good things of life while you can get them. Time will come when we shall have to luxuriate on salt junk as hard as a millstone and weevilly biscuits."

Plenty of joking took place, and everybody seemed in good humour, so that I soon found myself fairly at my ease, and all I wanted to be perfectly so was to know the ways of the ship. I succeeded in producing several roars of laughter by the stories I told, not attempting to overcome my brogue, but rather the contrary, as I found it amused my auditors. When the rum was pa.s.sed round, of which each person had a certain quantum, the doctor sang out to the youngsters, including Tom Pim and me, "Hold fast! it's a vara bad thing for you laddies, and I shall be having you all on the sick list before long if I allow you to take it. Pa.s.s the pernicious liquor along here."

Tom obeyed, and so did I, willingly enough, for I had tasted the stuff and thought it abominably nasty, but two or three of the other midshipmen hesitated, and some seemed inclined to revolt.

"I call on you, Nettleship, as president of the mess, to interfere,"

exclaimed the doctor. "What do these youngsters suppose I'm sent here for, but to watch over their morals and their health; and as I find it difficult in the one case to do my duty with the exact.i.tude I desire, I shall take care not to neglect it in the other. There's young Chaffey there, who has stowed away enough duff to kill a bull, and now he's going to increase the evil by pouring this burning fiery liquid down his throat. Do you want to be in your grave, Jack? if not, be wise, and let the grog alone."

Chaffey, the fattest midshipman among us, looked somewhat alarmed, and quickly pa.s.sed up the rum. I observed that the doctor kept it by his side, and having finished his own quantum, began to sip the portions he had forbidden the youngsters to drink. It was difficult to suppose that he was perfectly disinterested in his advice.

Being in harbour, we sat much longer than usual. At last I asked Tom if he thought I could venture to go and look out for Larry.

"Oh, yes; this is Liberty Hall," he answered.

I was going forward, when I heard my name called, and going to the spot from whence the voice came, I saw the first lieutenant standing before my chest, at which he cast a look of mingled indignation and contempt.

By his side was a warrant officer, whom I heard addressed as Mr Bradawl, with a saw and chisel and hammer in hand.

"Does this huge chest belong to you?" asked old Rough-and-Ready, as I came up.

"Yes, sir," I answered; "I'm rather proud of it."

"We shall see if you continue so," he exclaimed. "Do you think we have room to stow away such a lumbering thing as this? Where's the key?"

I produced it.

"Now tumble your things out."

"But please, sir, I haven't room to pack them away. I have got this bundle, and that case, and those other things are all mine."

"Tumble them out!" cried the lieutenant, without attending to my expostulations.

I obeyed. And the carpenter began sawing away at a line which old Rough-and-Ready had chalked out not far from the keyhole. Mr Bradawl had a pretty tough job of it, for the oak was hard. The lieutenant stood by, watching the proceeding with evident satisfaction. He was showing me that a first lieutenant was all-powerful on board ship. I watched this cruel curtailment of my chest with feelings of dismay.

Having sawn it thus nearly in two, the carpenter knocked off the end of the part he had severed from the rest, and then hammered it on with several huge nails.

"Now, youngster, pick out the most requisite articles, and send the others ash.o.r.e, or overboard, or anywhere, so that they're out of the ship," exclaimed the first lieutenant; saying which he turned away to attend to some other duty, leaving me wondering how I should stow the things away. Tom Pim, who had seen what was going forward, came up to my a.s.sistance; and by putting the things in carefully, and stamping them down, layer after layer, we managed to stow away more than I had conceived possible.

"I think I could find room for some of them in my chest, as we have been to sea for some time, and a good many of my own have been expended; and, I daresay, the other fellows will be equally ready to oblige you," said Tom.

I was delighted at the proposal, and hastened to accept it,--but I didn't find it quite so easy to get them back again! Tom, however, soon smelt out the cake. At first he suggested that it would be safe in his chest, but Chaffey coming by, also discovered it; and though he was most anxious to take charge of it for me, Tom, knowing very well what would be its fate, insisted on its being carried into the berth. I need hardly say that by the end of tea-time it had disappeared.

I had no difficulty in finding Larry, when I at length set forth in quest of him. The sound of his fiddle drew me to the spot, where, surrounded by a party of admiring shipmates, he was sc.r.a.ping away as happy as a prince. On catching sight of me, he sprang out of the circle.

"Och, Misther Terence, I'm mighty glad to see you; but shure I didn't know you at first in your new clothes. I hope you like coming to sea as much as myself. Shure it's rare fun we're having in this big ship; and is his honour the major gone home again?"

I told him that I concluded such was the case, and how pleased I was to find that he liked his life on board,--though it didn't occur to me at the time that not having as yet been put to perform any special duty, he fancied he was always to lead the idle life he had hitherto been enjoying. We were both of us doomed ere long to discover that things don't always run smoothly at sea.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

MASTHEADED.

The frigate was not yet ready for sea, and I had therefore time to pick up some sc.r.a.ps of nautical knowledge, to learn the ways of the ship, and to get a tolerable notion of my duties. I quickly mastered the rules and regulations of the service, a copy of which Jack Nettleship gave me.

"Stick by them, my lad, and you can't go wrong; if you do, it's their fault, not yours," he observed.

"But suppose I don't understand them?" I asked.

"Then you can plead in justification that they are not sufficiently clear for an ordinary comprehension," he answered. "I do when I make a mistake, and old Rough-and-Ready is always willing to receive my excuses, as he can't spell them out very easily himself, though they are his constant study day and night. Indeed, I doubt if he reads anything else, except Norie's _Navigation_ and the _Nautical Almanack_?"

Nettleship showed me a copy of the former work, and kindly undertook to instruct me in the science of navigation. All day long, however, he was employed in the duties of the ship, and in the evening I was generally sleepy when it was our watch below, so that I didn't make much progress.

Though I got on very well, I was guilty, I must own, of not a few blunders. I was continually going aft when I intended to be going forward, and _vice versa_.

The day after I came aboard I was skylarking with Tom Pim, Chaffey, and other midshipmites (as the oldsters called us), when I told them that I would hide, and that they might find me if they could. I ran up the after-ladder, when seeing a door open, I was going to bolt through it.

Just then a marine, who was standing there, placed his musket to bar my way. Not wishing to be stopped, I dodged under it, turning round and saying--

"Arrah, boy! don't be after telling where I'm gone to."