The Story of Nelson | Page 2

back, and that I had no clothes
with me. At this the Greenwich officer, Lieutenant R---, laughed
heartily.

"A shirt-collar and a pocket-comb? What does a midshipman want
more?" he exclaimed. "But I will find him all the luxuries he may
require. Let him stay, and tell his friends that he is in safe keeping."
So it was arranged, and I found myself an inmate of Greenwich
Hospital.
After I had been seen walking up and down the terrace a few times with
Lieutenant R---, the pensioners, when I spoke to them, answered me
readily, though at first rather shy of talking of themselves or their
adventures. At length I fell in with a fine old man, and sitting down on
one of the benches facing the river, I began to tell him how much I
honoured and loved all sailors, and how I longed myself to become
one.
"Ay, boy, there are good and bad at sea as well as on shore; but as to
the life, it's good enough; and if I had mine to begin again, I would
choose it before all others," he answered, and once more relapsed into
silence.
Just then Lieutenant H--- passed; he nodded at me with a smile, saying,
as he passed on, "My old friend there will tell you more of Lord Nelson
than any man now in the Hospital."
The old man looked at me with a beaming expression on his
countenance.
"Ay, that I can," he said, "boy and man I sailed with him all my life,
from the day he got his first command till he was struck down in the
hour of victory. So to speak, sir, I may say I knew him from the very
day he first stepped on board a ship. This is how it was: My father was
a seaman, and belonged to the `Raisonable,' just fitted out by Captain
Suckling, and lying in the Medway. One afternoon a little fellow was
brought on board by one of the officers, and it was said that he was the
captain's nephew; but the captain was on shore, and there was nobody
to look after him. He walked the deck up and down, looking very
miserable, but not crying, as some boys would have done--not he. That
wasn't his way at any time. When the captain did come on board, and

he saw his nephew, he shrugged his shoulders, as much as to say that
he didn't think he was fit for a sea-life. No more he did look fit for it, for
he was a sick, weakly-looking little fellow. However, it wasn't long
before he showed what a great spirit there was in him."
"Ay," said I, "there is a story I have heard which proved that, when he
was merely a child. He and another little fellow had gone away
bird's-nesting from his grandmother's house, and he not coming back,
the servants were sent to look for him. He was found seated by the side
of a brook, which he could not get over. `I wonder, child,' said the old
lady, when she saw him, `that hunger and fear did not drive you home.'
`Fear, grandmamma!' answered the boy, `I never saw fear! What is
it?'"
"True, true!" exclaimed the old man. "Fear! I don't think he ever felt it
either. Well, as I was going to tell you, my father followed Captain
Suckling into the `Triumph,' and young Nelson went with him; but as
she was merely to do duty as guard-ship in the Thames, the captain
sent his nephew out in a merchant-vessel to the West Indies, to pick up
some knowledge of seamanship. When he came back he soon showed
that he had not lost his time, and that he was already a good practical
seaman. Soon after this an expedition was fitted out for a voyage of
discovery towards the North Pole, under Captain Phipps and Captain
Lutwidge, in the `Racehorse' and `Carcass.' My father volunteered, and
so did Mr Nelson, who got a berth as captain's coxswain with Captain
Lutwidge. The ships, after entering the polar seas, were quickly beset
with ice. Mr Nelson, who had command of a boat, soon showed what he
was made of. My father was in another boat, and as they were
exploring a channel to try and find a passage for the ships into the
open sea, one of the officers fired at a walrus. `Ah, I've hit him!' he
exclaimed, `not a bad shot!' and he thought no more about the matter.
But the brute gave a look up with a race like a human being, as much
as to say, `We'll see more than one can play at that game,' and down he
dived. Presently up again he came, with some twenty