Sail Ho! | Page 4

name?"
"Alison Dale."
"How old are you?"
"Seventeen, nearly."
"I'm seventeen," he cried.
"And what's your name?"
"Nicholas Walters; and as I'm senior, you'll have to bustle about a bit. I won't be too hard on you, but you'll have to look sharp and pick up things. I dare say I can put you up to a good deal of seamanship."
"Thank you," I said quietly.
"Of course, I don't know what sort of officers we've got here; but you and I can swing together, and I'll help to make it as easy for you as I can. It's rather hard for a boy making his first voyage."
"I suppose so," I said; "but I shall try not to mind."
"Look here; is your father a gentleman?"
"Oh yes; he was in the army till he was invalided."
"Then he's an invalid?"
"No, no, not now. He was badly wounded in the Crimea, and had to retire from the service."
"Then why didn't you go in the army? 'Fraid of getting wounded in the Crimea?"
"No; I wanted to go to sea?"
"Then why didn't you go in the Royal Navy?"
"Because my father had a better opportunity for getting me in the merchant service."
"Oh!"
I felt as if I should never like Mr Nicholas Walters, for he was rather consequential in his way, and seemed disposed to lord it over me on the strength of having made one voyage. But I consoled myself with the thought that it was hard for any one to make himself agreeable on a day like that; and then as we sat listening to the banging and thumping about overhead, I began to think of my promise to my father, for I had promised to make the best of things all through the voyage, and not be easily damped.
My musings were cut short by my companion.
"I say," he cried, "you seem a lively sort of officer."
"One can't feel very lively just coming away from home amongst strangers," I replied.
"Bosh! You're talking like a boarding-school girl. What do you think of the skipper?"
"The captain? I haven't seen him yet."
"Yes, you have. That was he who let go at the men up aloft. He's a rough 'un, and no mistake. Berriman--I don't think much of him nor of the ship; I shall shift into another line after this trip. It isn't good enough for me."
"I wonder whether I shall talk like that," I thought to myself, "when I've been on a voyage." Then aloud: "Shall we go on deck for a bit, and see if we can do anything?"
"Not likely," was the shortly uttered reply. "What's the good? Get wet through in this mizzling rain. Let's wait for lunch. There'll be a good one, because of the passengers' friends being on board. Some say they'll go down to Gravesend with us. Here, you're all green yet; you leave everything to me, and I'll tell you what to do."
I said "Thankye," and he went on cross-examining me.
"Smoke?" he said.
I shook my head.
"Never mind, I'll teach you; and, look here, if it's fine this afternoon, I'll take you round and introduce you to all the officers and people."
"But I thought you were as strange as I am," I said.
"Well, I don't know the people themselves, but I know which will be the mates and doctor and boatswain, and I can show you all about the ship, and take you aloft, can't I?"
"Oh yes, of course," I said.
"You'll find I can be a deal of use to you if you stick to me, and I can take your part if any of the other middies try to bounce you."
"Will there be any other midshipmen?" I asked.
"P'raps. But it's all gammon calling us middies. We are only a kind of apprentices, you know. It isn't like being in a man-o'-war."
As it happened, a gleam of sunshine tried about half-an-hour after--just as I was growing terribly sick of my companion's patronising ways--to get in at the little cabin-window, and failed; but it gave notice that the weather was lifting, and I was glad to go on deck, where the planks soon began to show white patches as the sailors began to use their swabs; but the bustle and confusion was worse than ever. For the deck was littered with packages of cargo, which had arrived late, with Auckland and Wellington, New Zealand, painted upon them in black letters, and some of these appeared to be boxes of seeds, and others crates of agricultural implements.
Then we were warped out of the dock into the river, a steam-tug made fast to the tow-rope ahead, and another hooked herself on to the port side of the great ship to steady her, as she began to glide slowly with the tide, now just beginning to ebb, along through the hundreds of craft on either side.
I looked sharply round for that monarch of our