Dick Cheveley | Page 2

model--My reception at home.
We were all seated round the tea-table, that is to say, my father and
mother, my five sisters, and three of my elder brothers, who were at
home--two were away--and the same number of young ones, who wore
pinafores, and last, but not least, Aunt Deb, who was my mother's aunt,
and lived with us to manage everything and keep everybody in order,
for this neither my father nor mother were very well able to do; the
latter nearly worn out with nursing numerous babies, while my father
was constantly engaged in the duties of the parish of Sandgate, of
which he was incumbent.
Aunt Deb was never happy unless she was actively engaged in doing
something or other. At present she was employed in cutting, buttering,
or covering with jam, huge slices of bread, which she served out as
soon as they were ready to the juvenile members of the family, while
my eldest sister, Mary, was presiding at the tea-tray, and passing round
the cups as she filled them.
When all were served, my father stood up and said grace, and then all
fell to with an eagerness which proved that we had good appetites.
"I say, Aunt Deb, Tom Martin has lent me such a jolly book. Please
give me another slice before you sit down. It's all about Anson's voyage
round the world. I don't know whether I shall like it as well as
`Robinson Crusoe' or `Captain Cook's Voyages,' or `Gulliver's Travels,'
or the `Life of Nelson,' or `Paul Jones,' but I think I shall from the look
I got of it," I exclaimed, as Aunt Deb was doing what I requested.
"I wish, Dick, that you would not read those pestiferous works," she
answered, as, having given me the slice of bread, she sat down to sip
her tea. "They are all written with an evil intent, to make young people
go gadding about the world, instead of staying contentedly at home
doing their duty in that state of life to which they are called."

"But I don't understand why I should not be called to go to sea," I
replied; "I have for a long time made up my mind to go, and I intend to
try and become as great a man as Howe, or Nelson, or Collingwood, or
Lord Cochrane, or Sir Sidney Smith. I've just to ask you, Aunt Deb,
what England would be without her navy, and what the navy would be
unless boys were allowed to go into it?"
"Stuff and nonsense, you know nothing about the matter, Dick. It's very
well for boys who have plenty of interest, for sons of peers or members
of parliament, or judges or bishops, or of others who possess ample
means and influence, but the son of a poor incumbent of an out of the
way parish, who knows no one, and whom nobody knows, would
remain at the bottom of the tree."
"But you forget, Aunt Deb, that there are ways of getting on besides
through interest. I intend to do all sorts of dashing things, and win my
promotion, through my bravery. If I can once become a midshipman I
shall have no fear about getting on."
"Stuff and nonsense!" again ejaculated Aunt Deb, "you know nothing
about the matter, boy."
"Don't I though," I said to myself, for I knew that my father, who felt
the importance of finding professions for his sons according to their
tastes, had some time before written to Sir Reginald Knowsley, of
Leighton Park,--"the Squire," as he used to be called till he was made a
baronet, and still was so very frequently, asking him to exert his
influence in obtaining an appointment for me on board a man-of-war.
This Sir Reginald had promised to do. Aunt Deb, however, had made
many objections, but for once in a way my father had acted contrary to
her sage counsel, and as he considered for the best. Still Aunt Deb had
not given in.
"You'll do as you think fit, John," she observed to him, "but you will
repent it. Dick is not able to take care of himself at home, much less
will he be so on board a big ship among a number of rough sailors. Let
him remain at school until he is old enough to go into a counting-house
in London or Bristol, where he'll make his fortune and become a

respectable member of society, as his elder brother means to be, or let
him become a master at a school, or follow any course of life rather
than that of a soldier or a sailor."
I did not venture to interrupt Aunt Deb, indeed it would have been
somewhat dangerous to have done so, while she was arguing