With Clive in India | Page 6

clerk round with you, to get the few
things which are necessary for your voyage.
"I suppose you will want to, what you call amuse yourself, to see the
beasts at Exeter Change, and the playhouses. Here are two sovereigns.
Don't get into loose company, and don't get drinking, sir, or out of the
house you go."
Charlie attempted to express his thanks, but his uncle stopped him
abruptly.
"Hold your tongue, sir. I am doing what is right; a thing, sir, Joshua
Tufton always has done, and doesn't expect to be thanked for it. All I
ask you is, that if you rob the Company's till and are hung, don't
mention that you are related to me."
After dinner was over, Charlie went out under the charge of an old
clerk, and visited tailors' and outfitters' shops, and found that his uncle's

idea of the few necessaries for a voyage differed very widely from his
own. The clerk, in each case, inquired from the tradesmen what was the
outfit which gentlemen going to India generally took with them, and
Charlie was absolutely appalled at the magnitude of the orders. Four
dozen shirts, ten dozen pairs of stockings, two dozen suits of white
cotton cloth, and everything else in proportion. Charlie in vain
remonstrated, and even implored the clerk to abstain from ordering
what appeared to him such a fabulous amount of things; and begged
him, at any rate, to wait until he had spoken to his uncle. The clerk,
however, replied that he had received instructions that the full usual
outfit was to be obtained, and that Mr. Tufton never permitted his
orders to be questioned. Charlie was forced to submit, but he was
absolutely oppressed with the magnitude of his outfit, to carry which
six huge trunks were required.
"It is awful," Charlie said to himself, "positively awful. How much it
will all come to, goodness only knows; three or four hundred pounds, at
least."
In those days, before steam was thought of, and the journey to India
was often of six months' duration, men never came home more than
once in seven years, and often remained in India from the day of their
arrival until they finally retired, without once revisiting England. The
outfits taken out were, therefore, necessarily much larger than at the
present time, when a run home to England can be accomplished in three
weeks, and there are plenty of shops, in every town in India, where all
European articles of necessity or luxury can be purchased.
After separating from the clerk, Charlie felt altogether unable to start
out in search of amusement. He wandered about vaguely till supper
time, and then attempted to address his uncle on the subject.
"My dear Uncle," he began, "you've been so awfully kind to me, that I
really do not like to trespass upon you. I am positively frightened at the
outfit your clerk has ordered. It is enormous. I'm sure I can't want so
many things, possibly, and I would really rather take a much smaller
outfit; and then, as I want them, I can have more things out from
England, and pay for them myself."

"You don't suppose," Mr. Tufton said sternly, "that I'm going to have
my nephew go out to India with the outfit of a cabin boy. I ordered that
you were to have the proper outfit of a gentleman, and I requested my
clerk to order a considerable portion of the things to be made of a size
which will allow for your growing, for you look to me as if you were
likely enough to run up into a lanky giant, of six feet high. I suppose he
has done as I ordered him. Don't let me hear another word on the
subject."
Chapter 2
: The Young Writer.
For the next four days, Charlie followed his uncle's instructions and
amused himself. He visited Exeter Change, took a boat and rowed
down the river to Greenwich, and a coach and visited the palace of
Hampton Court. He went to see the coaches make their start, in the
morning, for all places in England, and marvelled at the perfection of
the turnouts. He went to the playhouses twice, in the evening, and saw
Mr. Garrick in his performance as Richard the Third.
On the fifth day, a great surprise awaited him. His uncle, at breakfast,
had told him briefly that he did not wish him to go out before dinner, as
someone might want to see him; and Charlie, supposing that a
messenger might be coming down from the India House, waited
indoors; and an hour later he was astonished, when the door of the
room opened and his mother and sisters entered.
With a shout of gladness and surprise, Charlie rushed into