My First Cruise | Page 2

he rather prides himself. This was found out, so it was voted that
he should be re-christened, and not be allowed under dreadful pains and
penalties to assume his proper appellation in the berth; so no one thinks
of calling him anything but Snookes. He is getting not to mind it, which
I am glad of, as he does not seem a bad fellow, and is up to fun of all
sorts. There is another fellow who is always called Lord Jones or My
Lord, because he is as unlike what you would suppose a nobleman to
be as possible. Then there is Polly. His real name is Skeffington
Scoulding, which was voted too long, so, as poor fellow he has lost an
eye, he was dubbed Polyphemus, which was soon turned into Polly. I
haven't got a new name yet, so I hope to stick to my own. I have picked
up a good many more bits of information during the three days I have
been on board, but I have not time to tell them now. I will though, don't
fear. I hope to be put in a watch when we get to sea. I don't mean inside
a silver case, to go on tick!--ha!--ha!--ha! but to keep watch under a
lieutenant, to see what the ship is about, and to keep her out of scrapes.

Good-bye, dear old fellow, I'll tell you more when I can.-- Your affect
brother, Pringle Rushforth.

STORY ONE, CHAPTER 2.
NOTES FROM MY LOG.
The capstern went round with a merry tune--the boatswain's whistle
sounded shrilly along the decks with a magic effect--the anchor was
hove up--the sails were let fall and but a few minutes had passed, after
the captain gave the word of command, before the ship, under a wide
spread of snowy canvas, was standing down the Solent towards the
Needle passage. It was a lovely summer's day, the sky was blue and so
was the water, and the land looked green and bright, and the paint was
so fresh, and the deck so white, and the officers in their glittering
uniform had so polished an appearance, and the men in their white
trousers and shirts with worked collars and natty hats, looked so neat
and active as they sprang nimbly aloft, or flew about the decks, that I
felt very proud of the frigate and everything about her, and very glad
that I had come to sea. To be sure matters below were not quite in the
same order just then. Still prouder was I when we saluted the Queen,
who was at Osborne--firing away first on one side and then on the other,
with a flash and a roar, and a huge puff of smoke. We passed out at the
Needles with the cheese-like castle of Hurst and its red ninepin-looking
lighthouses on our right, and a little further to the west on our right
with the high cliffs of Alum Bay striped curiously with coloured sand
and three high-pointed rocks, wading out into the sea, as if wanting to
get across to the north shore. These are the Needle rocks. We had run
the high white cliff at the west end of the island out of sight before dark,
and that, except a thin blue tint of land away to the north-east, was the
last I saw of the shores of dear old happy England. I daresay others felt
as I did, but we all had so much to do that we hadn't time to talk about
it. Dickey Snookes had been to sea already for a few months, and of
course knew a great deal more than I could--at least he said that he did,
and on the strength of it offered to tell me all about everything. I
thought I saw a twinkle in his eye, but his eyes always are twinkling, so

I did not suspect him of intending mischief. We had some vegetables
for dinner--some carrots and turnips--and he asked me if I knew where
they grew? I said in some garden, I supposed. "Of course, young 'un,"
he answered. But you wouldn't suppose we had a garden up in our
foretop, where we grow all sorts of greens and other things. You have
not found your way there, I suspect. I told him that I had not, and he
said that I must go up there that very afternoon with him, and that he
would introduce me to the head-gardener, who was always up there
looking after the gooseberry bushes. I knew that this was a joke, but
still I wanted to see what he meant. I said that I was ready at once, but
he kept putting me off; and whenever he saw me going up the rigging
he always got