Ben Burton | Page 6

was dressed, there was no cruelty in that. He grumbled considerably;
the more so, probably, because his plan had been defeated.
"We continued every now and then sending up blue lights, keeping a
very watchful eye all the time on our prisoners. At length, far away on
our weather-beam, a bright light suddenly burst forth as if out of the
dark ocean. We tacked and stood towards it. However, as the wind was
very light, the Third-Lieutenant was sent off in the gig with an account
of our success. Two hours had still to pass away before we at length got
up to the frigate, and pretty well-pleased we were when the cheer which
our shipmates sent forth to congratulate us on our success reached our
ears." Such was the substance of my father's account, often
subsequently told.
I do not know whether the anxiety which Burton felt when she saw her
husband setting out on what she knew must be a dangerous expedition
had any peculiar effect on her, but certain it is, that while my father was
slashing away at the Frenchmen, and the bullets were flying about his

head, I was born into the world.
With regard to the prize, she was carried safely into Macao, in the
expectation that she would be fitted out as a cruiser, and that Mr
Schank would get the command of her. Her fate I shall have hereafter
to relate.
I meantime grew apace, and speedily cut out Quacko in the estimation
of our shipmates. He, however, had his friends and supporters; for
some months, at all events, he afforded them more amusement than I
could do. They could tease him and play him tricks, which my mother
and Mrs King took very good care they should not do to me. I had no
lack of nurses from the first, and highly honoured were those into
whose hands my mother ventured to commit me.
Mrs King had enough to do for some time after the action, in attending
both to my mother and the poor fellows who had been wounded, both
English and French, the latter receiving as much care from her gentle
hands as did our own people. The two chief rivals for the honour of
looking after me were my cousin, Pat Brady, and Toby Kiddle,
boatswain's mate. Although many of my old shipmates have passed
away from my memory, Toby Kiddle made an impression which was
never erased. Nature had not intended him for a topman, for though
wonderfully muscular, his figure was like a tun. His legs were short,
and his arms were unusually long. With them tucked akimbo, he could
take up two of the heaviest men in the ship, and run along the deck with
them as lightly as he would have done with a couple of young children.
He had a generous, kind heart, could tell a good story, and troll forth a
ditty with any man; and as to his bravery, where all were brave, I need
scarcely mention it, except to say that I do no not think anyone beat
him at that. Boatswain's mate though he was, Toby Kiddle had a heart
as gentle as a lamb's. He scarcely seemed cut out for the post, and yet
there was a rough crust over it which enabled him to do his duty, and
when he had to lay on with the cat, to shut his eyes, and to hit as hard
as he was ordered. And yet I always have pitied a kind-hearted
boatswain's mate, though he is not after all worse off than the captain
and officers, who have to stand by and see men punished. However, I

will not say anything about that matter just now. Time went on, and I
grew bigger, and began to chew beef and bacon with the rest of the
ship's company becoming more and more independent of my mother in
every way. Yet I loved her, as such a mother deserved to be loved. As I
grew bigger I made more and more friends. The Captain himself very
frequently took notice of me, and patted my head, which was beginning
to get curls upon it, and often gave me cakes and other Chinese
manufactured delicacies which he had got from the shore. Captain
Cobb was a short man, and since he came out to China had grown very
round and stout. His face, as a boy, had been probably pink and white,
but it had now been burnt into a deep red copper colour. His eyes,
which were small, were bloodshot, with a ferrety expression, and
altogether his outward man was not attractive. His uniforms, which had
hung loosely on him when he left home, had been, by the skill of the
tailor, let out and