Afloat and Ashore | Page 3

liked and loved by every one in the parish;
perhaps they could condone his "sin of omission" in the matter of not
wearing a proper clerical black coat with a stand-up collar of Oxford
cut and the regulation white tie, and that of "commission" in smoking
such a vulgar thing as a common clay pipe!
Presently, after his second turn as far as the lilac bush and back, father's
face cleared, as if he had worked out the question that had been
puzzling him; for, its anxious expression vanished and his eyes seemed
to smile again.
"I suppose it's a family trait, and runs in the blood," he said. "Your
grandfather,--my father, that is, Allan,--was a sailor; and I know I
wanted to go to sea too, just like you, before I was sent to college. So,
that accounts for your liking for it--eh?"
"I suppose so," I answered without thinking, just echoing his words like
a parrot; although, now I come to consider the thing fully, I really can
see no other reason than this hereditary instinct to account for the
passionate longing that possessed me at that period to be a sailor, as,
beyond reading Robinson Crusoe like other boys, I was absolutely
ignorant of the life and all concerning it. Indeed, up to then, although it
may seem hardly credible, I had only once actually seen the sea, and a

ship in the distance--far-away out in the offing of what appeared to me
an immeasurable expanse of space. This was when father took my
sister Nellie and me for a day's visit to Brighton. It was a wonderful
experience to us, from the contrast the busy town on the coast offered
to the quiet country village where we lived and of which my father was
the pastor, buried in the bosom of the shires away from the bustling
world, and out of contact with seafaring folk and those that voyage the
deep.
Yes, there's no doubt of it. That love for the sea, which made me wish
to be a sailor as naturally as a cat loves cream, ran in my blood, and
must have been bred in my bone, as father suggested.
Before, however, we could either of us pursue the psychological
investigation of this theory any further, our argument was interrupted
by my mother's coming to where we were standing under the elm-tree
at the top of the garden.
Father at once put away his pipe on her approach, always respecting
and honouring her beyond all women even as he loved her; and he
greeted her with a smile of welcome.
"Well, dear?" said he sympathetically as she held out the letter she
carried and then placed her hand on his arm confidingly, turning her
anxious face up to his in the certainty of finding him ready to share her
trouble whatever it might be. "Now tell me all about it."
"It has come, Robert!" she exclaimed, nestling nearer to him.
"Yes, I see, dear," he replied, glancing at the open sheet; for they had
no secrets from each other, and she had opened the letter already,
although it had been addressed to him. Then, looking at me, father
added: "This is from Messrs. Splice and Mainbrace, the great ship-
brokers of Leadenhall Street, to whom I wrote some time since, about
taking you in one of their vessels, Allan, on your expressing such a
desire to go to sea."
"Oh, father!" was all I could say.

"They inform me now," continued he, reading from the broker's
communication, "that all the arrangements have been completed for
your sailing in the Silver Queen on Saturday next, which will be
to-morrow week, your premium as a first-class apprentice having been
paid by my London agents, by whom also your outfit has been ordered;
and your uniform, or `sea toggery' as sailors call it, will be down here
next Monday or Tuesday for you to try on."
"Oh, father!" I cried again, in wondering delight at his having settled
everything so promptly without my knowing even that he had acceded
to my wishes. "Why, you seem to have decided the question long ago,
while you were asking me only just now if I would not prefer any other
profession to the sea!"
"Because, my son," he replied affectionately, "I know that boys, like
girls, frequently change their minds, and I was anxious that you should
make no mistake in such a vital matter as that of your life's calling; for,
even at the last hour, if you had told me you preferred being a
clergyman or a doctor or a lawyer to going to sea, I would cheerfully
have sacrificed the money I have paid to the brokers and for your outfit.
Aye, and I would willingly do it now,