The Story of Nelson | Page 2

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 or more companions, and with the greatest fury they set on the boat with their tusks, and tried to capsize her. My father and the rest of the crew fought desperately with