The Loss of the Royal George | Page 5

of old times, I went back into the kitchen. I had been
sitting there for some time, when a young woman came in with the
sweetest face I ever set eyes on. I got up and made a sort of bow, with a
scrape of my foot and a pull at a lovelock I wore in those days, for it
was not for me, I felt, to sit in the presence of one like her; when Jane,
laughing, said--
"Why, Ben, don't you know Susan Willis?"
She was one of a lot of little girls I remember living next door to us,
and I used to take her on my knee and sing to her, and tell her about
Lord Hawke and the Royal George, when I was at home for the first
time after going to sea. Susan smiled, and put out her hand, and that
moment I felt I was not my own master; her voice was as sweet as her
smile, and had the true ring of an honest heart in it.
"She is the young ladies' own maid," said Jane; "and they are as fond of
her as everyone is who knows her."
"I am sure of it," says I; "and I am thankful that I am among them."
Susan looked down and blushed, and so I believe I did, though she
could not see my blush through the brown skin of my face as well as I
could see the rose on her lily cheeks.
Well, the long and the short of it is that day after day I went up to the
house, and at last--I couldn't help it--I knew that I should be miserable
if Susan wouldn't be mine, so I asked her to marry me. How my heart
did beat when she said yes. The captain and his lady were agreeable,
and when they heard that I had a matter of three hundred pounds
prize-money, or more, they observed that it was a prudent match; and
so I took a cottage and furnished it, not far off, that Susan might go up
and see Mrs Leslie and the children whenever they wished, and we
were married and were as happy as the day was long. I know I was, and
Susan seemed contented with her lot.
Susan was a prudent young woman, and one day she says to me, "We
must do something, Ben, to make a living."

"Why do you think that, Susan?" I asked; "I have got no end of
prize-money."
"It's just this," says she; "you may think there is no end, but it will
come to an end, notwithstanding: what with the rent, and furnishing the
house, and the new clothes you got me, and the weekly bills, we have
spent fifty pounds of it already. Now, if we could set up a shop, or you
could turn carpenter or gardener, or go into service with someone living
hereabouts, we could lay up the rest of the money till a rainy day; and
as we have a pretty spare room, I might take in a lodger to help out the
rent."
I had never before thought of that sort of thing; but I was sure that
Susan was right, and I began to turn in my mind what to do. I soon
found that I was not fit for anything Susan proposed. I never was much
of a carpenter, and I knew nothing about gardening. I tried my hand in
my own garden, and had got everything shipshape as far as the palings,
walks, and borders were concerned, but I could get nothing to come up.
Still I kept thinking of Susan's remark, and, seeing the wisdom of it, I
knew that there was only one thing I was fit for, and that was to go to
sea. I was loath to part from Susan, but there was no help for it. There
came about this time a hot press at Portsmouth; and as more than once
the pressgangs had landed in the Isle of Wight, I was very sure that
unless I got stowed away securely I should be picked up. Now, thinks I,
it's better to enter as a free man; and hearing that my old ship, the Royal
George, which was lying at Spithead, was in want of hands, after a talk
with the captain and poor Susan, whose heart was well-nigh ready to
break, though she could not help acknowledging that I was right, I went
on board and entered. Captain Leslie had given me a note to Captain
Waghorn, her commander, and I was at once rated as quartermaster.
The flag of the brave Admiral Kempenfelt, who had a year before been
appointed Admiral of the Blue, flew aboard her. We sailed shortly
afterwards