"Never mind, I'll teach you; and, look here, if it's fine this
afternoon, I'll take you round and introduce you to all the officers and
people."
"But I thought you were as strange as I am," I said.
"Well, I don't know the people themselves, but I know which will be the
mates and doctor and boatswain, and I can show you all about the ship,
and take you aloft, can't I?"
"Oh yes, of course," I said.
"You'll find I can be a deal of use to you if you stick to me, and I can
take your part if any of the other middies try to bounce you."
"Will there be any other midshipmen?" I asked.
"P'raps. But it's all gammon calling us middies. We are only a kind of
apprentices, you know. It isn't like being in a man-o'-war."
As it happened, a gleam of sunshine tried about half-an-hour after--just
as I was growing terribly sick of my companion's patronising ways--to
get in at the little cabin-window, and failed; but it gave notice that
the weather was lifting, and I was glad to go on deck, where the planks
soon began to show white patches as the sailors began to use their
swabs; but the bustle and confusion was worse than ever. For the deck
was littered with packages of cargo, which had arrived late, with
Auckland and Wellington, New Zealand, painted upon them in black
letters, and some of these appeared to be boxes of seeds, and others
crates of agricultural implements.
Then we were warped out of the dock into the river, a steam-tug made
fast to the tow-rope ahead, and another hooked herself on to the port
side of the great ship to steady her, as she began to glide slowly with
the tide, now just beginning to ebb, along through the hundreds of craft
on either side.
I looked sharply round for that monarch of our little floating world--
the captain; but he had gone ashore to see the owners again, so my new
friend told me, and would come aboard again at Gravesend. But I had a
good view of the crew, and was not favourably impressed, for they
appeared to be a very rough lot. A great many of them had been
drinking, and showed it; others looked sour and low-spirited; and there
was a shabby, untidy aspect about them, which was not at all what I had
expected to see in the smart crew of a clipper ship, while my surprise
was greater still when I saw that four of the men evidently hailed from
China, and as many more were the yellow, duck-eyed, peculiar-looking
people commonly spoken of on board ship as Lascars.
The mates were so busy and hot, trying to get the decks cleared, and
succeeding very slowly with the unpromising material at their command,
that we saw very little of them, and I looked eagerly round to see what
our passengers were like; but there were so many people on board that it
was hard to pick out who was for the other side of the world and who was
to stay on this.
The time passed, and I ate as good a dinner as my companion that
evening, the first mate taking the head of the table; and that night,
when all the visitors had said good-bye, and were gone ashore, and I had
retired to my bunk, it seemed as if I had been on board for days. I lay
there longing to throw shoes or brushes at Walters, who was lying on his
back just under me, and breathing so exceedingly hard, that it was as if
he kept on saying _Snork_ in a nasty spiteful manner on purpose to keep
me awake. And it did keep me awake for some time. At last I dropped
asleep for about a minute, as it seemed to me, and then started up and
knocked my head against the woodwork.
"Only cold water, lad," said a voice. "I say, you, been to sea, and not
know how to tumble out of your berth without knocking your pumpkin."
I was confused for the moment by my intense sleepiness, and the blow I
had given my head, so that I could hardly make out where I was. Then as
I awoke to the fact that my brother middy was half-dressed, and that he
had been holding his dripping sponge to my face, I crawled out, or
rather lowered my legs down, and began to dress.
"Look sharp," said my companion; "don't stop to shave."