Paddy Finn | Page 3

probably from their own services being in the same condition, scarcely noticed this.
I had long had a desire to go to sea, partly from reading Captain Berkeley's History of the Navy, Robinson Crusoe, and the Adventures of Peter Wilkins, and partly from taking an occasional cruise on the Shannon,--that queen of rivers, which ran her course past the walls of Ballinahone, to mingle with the ocean, through the fair city of Limerick.
Often had I stood on the banks, watching the boats gliding down on the swift current, and listening to the songs of the fishermen, which came from far away up the stream!
I had, as most boys would have done, talked to my mother, and pestered my father and uncle, till the latter agreed to write to an old friend of his in the navy to consult him as to the best means of enabling me to gratify my wishes.
But I have been going ahead to talk of my family, forgetful of my honoured uncle, the major. He conned the letter, holding it in his two hands, now in one light, now in another, knitting his thick grey eyebrows to see the better, and compressing his lips. I watched him all the time, anxious to learn the contents, and yet knowing full well that it would not do to interrupt him. At last he came to the bottom of the page.
"It's just like him!" he exclaimed. "Terence, my boy, you'll have the honour of wearing His Majesty's uniform, as I have done for many a long year, though yours will be blue and mine is red; and you'll bring no discredit on your cloth, I'll be your surety for it."
"Thank you, uncle, for your good opinion of me," I said. "And am I really to become a midshipman, and wear a cockade in my hat, and a dirk by my side?"
"Within a few days you may be enjoying that happiness, my boy," answered the major. "My old friend, Captain Macnamara, writes me word that he'll receive you on board the Liffy frigate, which, by a combination of circumstances, is now lying in Cork Harbour,--fortunate for us, but which might have proved disastrous to her gallant officers and crew, for she was dismasted in a gale, and was within an ace of being driven on shore. But a miss is as good as a mile; and when under jury-masts she scraped clear of the rocks, and got into port in safety. Here my letter, after wandering about for many a day, found him, and he has lost no time in replying to it. One of his midshipmen having gone overboard in the gale, he can give you his berth; but mind you, Terence, don't go and be doing the same thing."
"Not if I can help it, uncle," I replied. "And Larry? will he take Larry? The boy has set his heart upon going to sea, and it would be after breaking if he were parted from me. He has been talking about it every day since he knew that I thought of going; and I promised him I would beg hard that he might go with me."
"As Captain Macnamara says that the Liffy has had several men killed in action, I have no doubt that a stout lad like Larry will not be refused; so you may tell him that when he volunteers, I'll answer for his being accepted," was the answer.
"Thank you, uncle; it will make him sing at the top of his voice when he hears that," I said. "And when are we to be off?"
"To-morrow, or the day after, at the furthest," answered the major. "I intend to go with you to introduce you to your captain, and to have a talk with him over old times."
"Then may I run and tell my father and mother, and Maurice, and Denis, and the girls?"
"To be sure, boy; but you mustn't be surprised if they are not as delighted to hear of your going, as you are to go," he answered, as I bolted out of the room.
I found my brothers turning out of bed, and gave them a full account of the captain's letter. They took the matter coolly.
"I wish you joy," said Maurice, who was expecting shortly to get his commission in our uncle's old regiment. I then went to the girls, who were by this time dressed. Kathleen and Nora congratulated me warmly.
"And shure are you going to be a real midshipman?" said Nora. "I wish I was a boy myself, that I might go to sea, and pull, and haul, and dance a hornpipe."
They, at all events, didn't seem so much cast down as my uncle supposed they would be. My father had just been wheeled out of his chamber into the breakfast room, for he