Dick Cheveley | Page 4

necessary."
"Couldn't you get Sir Reginald to advance the money?" I inquired, as
the bright idea occurred to me; "I will return it to him out of my pay
and prize-money."
Aunt Deb fairly burst out laughing.
"Out of your pay, Dick?" she exclaimed. "Why fifty pounds is required
over and above that pay you talk of, every penny of which you will
have to spend, and supposing that you should not be employed for a
time, and have to live on shore. Do you happen to know what a
midshipman's half-pay is? Why just nothing at all and find yourself.
You talk a good deal of knowing all about the matter, but it's just clear
that you know nothing."
"I wish, my dear Dick, that we could save enough to help you," said my
mother, who was always ready to assist us in any of our plans; "but you
know how difficult I find it to get even a few shillings to spend."
My mother's remark soothed my irritated feelings and disappointment,
or I should have said something which might not have been pleasant to
Aunt Deb's ears.
We continued talking on the subject, I devising all sorts of plans, and
arguing tooth and nail with Aunt Deb, for I had made up my mind to go
to sea, and to go I was determined by hook or by crook; but that fifty
pounds a year was, I confess, a damper to my hopes of becoming a
midshipman.

If I could have set to work and made the fifty pounds, I would have
done my best to do so, but I was as little likely to make fifty pounds as
I was to make fifty thousand. Aunt Deb also reminded my father that it
was not fifty pounds a year for one year, but fifty pounds for several
years, which he might set down as three hundred pounds, at least, of
which, through my foolish fancy, I should be depriving him, and my
mother, and brothers, and sisters.
There was no denying that, so I felt that I was defeated. I had at length
to go to bed, feeling as disappointed and miserable as I had ever been in
my life. To Ned, the brother just above me in age, who slept in the
same room, I opened my heart.
"I am the most miserable being in the world!" I exclaimed. "I wish that
I had never been born. If it had not been for Aunt Deb father would
have given in, but she hates me, I know, and always has hated me, and
takes a pleasure in thwarting my wishes. I've a great mind to run off to
sea, and enter before the mast just to spite her."
Ned, who was a quiet, amiable fellow, taking much after our kind
mother, endeavoured to tranquillise my irritated feelings.
"Don't talk in that way, Dick," he said in a gentle tone. "You might get
tired of the life, even if you were to go into the navy; but, perhaps,
means may be found, after all, to enable you to follow the bent of your
wishes. All naval captains may not insist on their midshipmen having
an allowance of fifty pounds a year; or, perhaps, if they do, some friend
may find the necessary funds."
"I haven't a friend in the world," I answered. "If my father cannot give
me the money I don't know who can. I know that Aunt Deb would not,
even if she could."
"Cheer up, Dick," said Ned; "or rather I would advise you to go to sleep.
Perhaps to-morrow morning some bright idea may occur which we
can't think of at present. I've got my lessons to do before breakfast, so I
must not stop awake talking, or I shall not be able to arouse myself."

I had begun taking off my clothes, and Ned waited until he saw me lie
down, when he put out the candle, and jumped into bed. I continued
talking till a loud snore from his corner of the room showed me that he
was fast asleep. I soon followed his example, but my mind was not idle,
for I dreamed that I had gone to sea, become a midshipman, and was
sailing over the blue ocean with a fair breeze, that the captain was
talking to me and telling me what a fine young sailor I had become, and
that he had invited me to breakfast with him, and had handed me a
plate of buttered toast and a fresh-laid egg; when, looking up, I saw his
countenance suddenly change into that of Aunt Deb.
"Don't you wish you may get it?" he said. "Before you eat that, go on
deck and see what weather it is."
Of course I had