The Powder Monkey | Page 9

It was all new to Phil, and he saw neither harm nor danger in it. It was
nothing to him but going below to fetch that flannel bag, and he was in
profound ignorance of the fact that if it went near a light he would be
blown to pieces, while he could not have had a more dangerous task
than that of the powder monkey who fetched up the charges from the
magazine, where if a spark should fall the vessel would be blown to
atoms and sunk.
Phil was not afraid, for he could not see the danger, and he laughed and
liked to run up and down from the powder magazine to the main deck,
because the big bluff men always laughed and said pleasant things to
him. He was not afraid either on that day when Jack Jeens looked very
serious and sponged his face for him over a bucket of water.
"Why, you're as black as a sweep with the powder," said Jack. "I say,
didn't you feel frightened when the guns roared?"
"No," said Phil; "I only felt as if I should like to put my fingers in my
ears. That gun did make a noise."

Just at that moment a little serious-looking officer in uniform, with only
one eye and one arm, stopped short, took off his cocked hat, and after
putting it on again, laid the telescope he carried upon Phil's shoulder.
"Why, you're the little fellow they call Phil, arn't you?" he said.
Phil nodded shortly.
"You're the little powder monkey, they tell me."
"Yes," said Phil, looking at the little man wonderingly.
"And you've been bravely nursing the boy who broke his leg, eh?"
"Oh, it isn't brave," said Phil, laughing and showing his white teeth.
"His leg hurts him very badly sometimes, and he likes me to read to
him then and tell him stories."
"Oh," said the officer; "then you read to him and tell him stories?"
"Yes," said Phil, "but I sha'n't read half so well as I should like; but I
am trying very hard."
"To be sure," said the little officer. "You are the sort of boy who would.
And you can tell stories?"
"Yes, three--I mean four; and Tom Dodds likes to hear them all over
and over again."
"Bravo!" said the little officer, tapping Phil on the shoulder with the
telescope. "There, be a good boy, and you'll get on and be something
better than a powder monkey one of these days."
"Who's that?" said Phil, as the little man walked forward and ascended
the companion ladder. "I like him, Jack, almost as much as I do you."
"And so you ought," said Jack, gruffly, "for that's our admiral, Lord
Nelson, the greatest man in the world."

CHAPTER SEVEN.
It was not long after that Phil was between decks, talking to his new
friend, the crippled boy, whose face always expanded into a grin of
satisfaction when his nurse appeared.
"Here, I wanted you," he cried. "I've got some news. The doctor told
me--"
"Did he say that you might soon try to walk?" cried Phil, eagerly.
"No; he said that my leg was going on well, but I was not to try to use it
for a long time yet. He told me that we are going to have a big fight
with the French. Isn't it a bother? For I sha'n't be able to go to my gun."
"Jack Jeens said he didn't think we should have a fight," replied Phil.
"He doesn't know anything about it," said the lame boy, impatiently.
"But I say, I shall be obliged to stop below; you might come and stop
with me."
"Jack said I should be sent below if there was a fight, so I will."
"That's right," said the boy, with a sigh of relief. "I didn't want for you
to see it and me stop below."
Phil looked at him in rather a puzzled way, for he did not know
whether he was disappointed or pleased--whether he would like to see
the battle or prefer to go below.
But he was not to choose, and a few days later he was quite forgotten in
the excitement of the great incident. For he had been trained to certain
duties in connection with one of the guns, and when the orders were
given for the different crews to take their places, he ran to his naturally
enough, perfectly ignorant of the fact that the British Fleet was in
"Trafalgar's Bay," with the Frenchmen before them, while the British
sailors, wild with excitement, were eagerly awaiting the orders that
should set hundreds of guns bellowing like thunder as they poured their

broadsides of shot into the enemy's sides.
All that little Phil knew was that his ears