Marmaduke Merry | Page 4

an thou takest on so," he answered sturdily, "Noa, noa, mother; I've said I'd stick to Measter Marmaduke, and if he goes, I'll go to look after him."
My brothers cheered and shouted as we drove off, and I did my best to shout and cheer in return, as did Toby in spite of his tears. My father accompanied us as far as London. We spent but a few hours in that big city.
"I don't see that it be so very grand like," observed Toby as we drove through it. "There bees no streets paved with gold, and no Lord Mayor in a gold coach,--only bricks and mortar, and people running about in a precious hurry."
Captain Collyer had desired that I should come down by the coach to the George at Portsmouth, where he would send his coxswain to meet me, and take me to the tailor, who would make my uniform, a part of my outfit which our country town had been unable to supply.
It was a bright summer morning when my father accompanied us to Piccadilly, whence the Portsmouth coach started.
"Cheer up, and don't forget your name, Marmaduke," he said, wringing my hand as I was climbing on to the front seat. He nodded kindly to Toby, who followed me closely. "Don't you forget to look after the young master, boy," he added.
"Noa, squire, while I'se got fists at the end of my arms, I won't," answered Toby.
"All right," shouted the guard, and the coach drove off.
I found myself seated by a tall man with a huge red nose, like the beak of an eagle, a copper complexion, jet black piercing eyes, and enormous black bushy whiskers. He looked down at me, I thought, with ineffable contempt. His clothes were of blue cloth, and his hands, which were very large and hairy, were marked on the back with strange devices, among which I observed an anchor, a ship, and a fish, which made me suspect that he must be a nautical character of some sort. He addressed the coachman and the passenger on the box seat several times in a wonderfully loud gruff voice, but as they showed by their answers that they were not inclined to enter into conversation with him, he at last turned his attention to me.
"Why are you going down to Portsmouth, little boy?" he asked, in a tone I did not like.
"I suppose because I want to get there," I answered.
"Ho! ho! ho!" His laugh was like the bellowing of a bull. "Going to sea, I fancy," he remarked.
"Yes, going to see Portsmouth," said I, quietly, "if I keep my eyes open."
"Ho! ho! sharp as a needle I see," observed the big man.
"Sharpness runs in the family," I replied. We were well up to this sort of repartee among each other at home.
"Your name is Sharp, I suppose," said my friend.
"No, only my nature, like a currant or a sour gooseberry," I replied, not able to help laughing myself.
"Take care, youngster, you don't get wounded with your own weapon," said the big man.
"Thank you," I answered, "but I am not a tailor."
"No--ho, ho, ho,--perhaps not; but you are little more than the ninth part of a man," said the giant.
"The ninth part of you, you mean; but I am half as big as most men now, and hope to be a whole man some day, and a captain into the bargain."
"Then I take it you are that important character, a new fledged midshipman," observed my huge companion.
"Judging of you by your size, I should suppose on the same grounds that you are nothing less than an admiral," I retorted.
"I should be, if I had my deserts, boy," he replied, drawing himself up, and swelling out his chest.
"Then are you only a captain?" I asked.
"I once was, boy," he replied with a sigh which resembled the rumbling of a volcano.
"Captain of the main-top," said the gentleman on the box without turning round.
"What are you now, then?" I asked.
"A boatswain," uttered the gentleman on the box.
"Yes, young gentleman, as our friend there says, I am a boatswain," he exclaimed in a voice of thunder, "and a very important person is a boatswain on board ship, let me tell you, with his call at his mouth, and colt in his hand, as your silent companion there will very soon find out, for I presume, by the cut of his jib, that he is not a midshipman."
"And what is a boatswain on board ship?" I asked, with unfeigned simplicity.
"Everything from truck to kelson, I may say, is under his charge," he replied consequentially. "He has to look after masts, spars, rigging, sails, cables, anchors, and stores; to see that the men are kept under proper discipline, and make them smart aloft. In my opinion a man-of-war might do