It has become a reality, dear Harry. I feel very strange--a curious
sensation in the throat, just as if I was going to cry, and yet it is
exactly what I have been longing for. You know better than any one how
I had set my heart on going to sea, and yet I thought that I should
never manage it. But, after all, here I am, really and truly a
midshipman; at least a volunteer of the first class, as we are called
now. The first time I put on my uniform, with my gold-band cap and
dirk, I could not help every now and then looking at the gold lace on my
collar and the buttons with the anchor and crown, and very pretty and
nice they looked; and I do believe that this half-reconciled poor mamma,
and Fanny, and Mary, and dear little Emily to my going when they saw me
with them on. I'll tell you how it all happened. Uncle Tom came to
stay with us. He had been at the Hall a week when, the very day before
I was to go back to school, while we were all at breakfast, he got a
long official-looking letter. No sooner had he torn it open and glanced
at its contents, than he jumped up and shook papa by the hand, then
kissed mamma, exclaiming, "They do acknowledge my services, and in a
handsome way too, and they have appointed me to the Juno intended for
the South American station; the very ship I should have chosen! I must
have Pringle with me. No nonsense, Mary. He wants to be a sailor, and
a sailor he shall be. He's well fitted for it. I'll have no denial.
It's settled--that's all right." (I had been telling him the day before
how much I wanted to go to sea.) He carried his point, and set all the
household preparing my kit, and then posted off for London, and rattled
down to Portsmouth to hoist his flag. He is not a man to do things by
halves. In three days I followed him. The ship was nearly ready for
sea. Most of the officers had joined. There was only one vacancy,
which I got. Another captain had been appointed, who had been
superseded, and he had selected most of the officers. Many of my
messmates are good fellows, but of others the less said about them the
better, at least as far as I could judge from the way they behaved when
I first went into the berth. We carry thirty-six guns. There is the
main deck, on which most of them are placed, and the upper deck, which
is open to the sky, and where all the ropes lead, and where some guns
are, and the lower deck, where we sleep in hammocks slung to the beams,
and where our berth is; that is the place where we live--our
drawing-room, and parlour, and study, and anything else you please.
There is a table in the centre, and lockers all round, and if you want
to move about you have to get behind the other fellows' backs or over
the table. Under it are cases and hampers of all sorts, which the
caterer has not unpacked. He is an old mate, and keeps us all in order.
His name is Gregson. I don't know whether I shall like him. He has
been a great many years a midshipman; for a mate is only a passed
midshipman who wants to be a lieutenant, but can't. He has no
interest--nobody to help him on--so there he is growling and grumbling
from morning to night, declaring that he'll cut the service, and go and
join the Russians, and make his country rue the day; but he doesn't, and
I believe he wouldn't, if they would make him an admiral and a count
off-hand. My chief friend they call Dicky Snookes. His real name,
though, is Algernon Godolphin Stafford, on which he rather prides
himself. This was found out, so it was voted that he should be
re-christened, and not be allowed under dreadful pains and penalties to
assume his proper appellation in the berth; so no one thinks of calling
him anything but Snookes. He is getting not to mind it, which I am glad
of, as he does not seem a bad fellow, and is up to fun of all sorts.
There is another fellow who is always called Lord Jones or My Lord,
because he is as unlike what you would suppose a nobleman to be as
possible. Then there is Polly. His real name is Skeffington Scoulding,
which was voted too long, so, as poor fellow he has lost an eye, he was
dubbed Polyphemus, which was soon turned into Polly. I haven't got a
new name yet, so I hope to stick to my own. I have picked up a good
many more bits of information during the three days I have been on
board, but I have not time to tell them now. I will though, don't fear.
I hope to be put in a watch when we get to sea. I don't mean inside a
silver case, to go on tick!--ha!--ha!--ha! but to keep watch under a
lieutenant, to see what the ship is about, and to keep her out of
scrapes. Good-bye, dear old fellow, I'll tell you more when I can.--
Your affect brother, Pringle Rushforth.