The day arrived. A post-chaise stood in front of the old grey
manor-house. I have it all before me. The pointed gables--the
high-pitched, dark weather; stained roof--the numberless latticed
windows--the moat, now dry, which had once served to keep out a body of
Cromwell's horse--the tall elms, which had nestled many a generation of
rooks--the clump of beech trees, and the venerable wide-spreading oak--
the broad gravelled court on one side, and the velvety lawn on the
other, sloping away down to the fine, large, deep fish-pond, whose
waters, on which I had obtained my first nautical experiences, as seen
through the green foliage, were sparkling brighter than ever under the
deep blue of the summer sky.
At the hall door were assembled all those I loved on earth--and dearly,
too, I loved them. My mother, as good and kind a mother as ever nursed
a somewhat numerous and noisy progeny; my sisters, dear, sweet, good
girls; and half-a-dozen brothers, honest, generous, capital fellows; our
father, too--such a father!--we always agreed that no one could come up
to him. Other fellows might have very good fathers, but they were not
equal to him! He could be just like one of us at cricket, or out
fishing, or shooting, and yet he was always right, and there was not a
finer-looking gentleman in the county, and that every one said. We were
all at home for the Midsummer holidays--that is to say, we boys; our
mother was not a person to let her girls go to school. Who could say
that we were not met for the last time in our lives?
I was the third of the boys. Two of our sisters were older than any of
us. I loved them, and they all loved me. Not that we ever talked about
that; I knew it and felt it, and yet I was going to leave them by my own
express wish.
I was not what is called a studious boy. I was fond of reading, and I
read all the books of voyages and travels I could lay hands on, and
before long began to wish to go and see with my own eyes what I had read
about. My brothers were fond of shooting and fishing and rowing, and so
was I; but I thought shooting tigers and lions and elephants, and
fishing for whales, and sailing over the salt ocean, would be much
grander work than killing partridges, catching perch, or rowing about
our pond in a punt. I do not know that my imaginings and wishes, ardent
as they grew, would ever have produced any definite form of action, had
not an old schoolfellow of our father's, called Captain Frankland, about
a year before the day I speak of, come to our house. As soon as I knew
he was coming I was very eager to see him, for I heard our father tell
our mother that there was scarcely a part of the world he had not
visited, and that he was looked upon as a first-rate navigator, and a
most scientific seaman. He had been in the navy during the war-time,
but peace came before he was made a lieutenant; and believing that he
should not there find sufficient employment for his energies, he had
quitted it and entered the merchant-service. While in command of a
whaler, he had been far towards the north pole. He had traversed the
Antarctic seas, and had often visited India and China, and the islands
of the Pacific. Still, as money-making or idleness had never been his
aim, and his strength was unabated, he kept at sea when many men would
have sought for rest on shore. Such was the account my father gave of
him.
How eagerly I waited for his coming! He had chosen the holidays on
purpose that he might see our father's young tribe, he wrote him word.
He was the very sort of person I longed to talk to; still it was with no
little awe that I thought of actually breakfasting, and dining, and
speaking day after day with one who had seen so much of the world, and
met with so many adventures. At last he arrived. I was not
disappointed in his appearance. He was a tall, thin, spare man, all
bone and muscle. His hair was almost white, and his features, which
were not a little weather-beaten, had, I thought, a most pleasant
expression. While, however, my brothers ran eagerly forward to meet
him, I hung back, watching him at a distance, like a bashful child. Had
he been one of England's greatest heroes, I could not have looked at him
with greater respect. "And that is the man," I thought, "who has sailed
over thousands and thousands of miles of water, and has seen Indians
dressed in feathers and shells, and negroes running wild in their native
woods, and Hottentots, and Esquimaux, and Chinese, and I do not know
what other strange people!" I saw my father look round for me, so at
last I went forward in time to be presented in my turn with the rest of
my brothers. Very soon the feeling of awe wore off, and I became the
most constant of his attendants wherever he wished to go. With the
greatest eagerness I used to listen to the accounts he gave our father
of his various adventures in the distant countries he had visited. My
brothers listened also; but while they would at length betake themselves
to other occupations, I remained his ever-attentive auditor. The
interest I exhibited in what he was saying attracted his attention, and
much pleased him, so that when I ventured to ask him questions, he both
answered them willingly and encouraged me to ask more. Thus we before
long became very great friends.
"Should you like to go to sea, Harry?" said he to me one day, when he
had begun to talk of taking his departure.
"With you, sir, indeed I should; there's nothing in the world I should
like so much," I answered. The tone of my voice and the expression of
my countenance showed him how much I was in earnest.
"Very well, my boy. You are rather young just yet to rough it at sea,
and you will be the better for another year's schooling; but when I come
back from my next voyage, if you are in the same mind, and your father
is willing to let you go, I will take you to sea with me. I'll talk to
him about it if I have an opportunity."
"Thank you, sir--thank you!" I exclaimed, almost choking with the
vehemence of my feelings; "it is what I have been longing for above all
things. Do, pray, tell my father, or he may suppose it is only a
passing fancy of mine, and may wish me to go into some other profession.
Still, he'll let me go with you--I know he will."
Captain Frankland smiled at my eagerness, but he said not a word to
dissuade me from my wish. Perhaps he remembered his own feelings at my
age. Grown-up people are apt to forget how they thought and felt when
they were boys, which is the reason so few men win the confidence of the
young and manage them properly. The captain, on the contrary, seemed to
understand me thoroughly, and thus gained a complete influence over me.
"I'll be ready to go when you come back," I added.
"Don't be too sure of yourself, Harry," he answered. "I've seen many
people completely change their opinions in a year's time, and I shall
not be absent less than that. If you remain constant to your wish,
remember my promise; but if your fancy changes, you are free to follow
it as far as I am concerned."
I thanked Captain Frankland over and over again for his kindness, and
certainly did not think that there was a possibility of my changing my
inclinations. So he went away, much to my regret, and I fancied that he
had not mentioned our conversation to my father. We all returned to
school, except our eldest brother, who went to college. I no longer
enjoyed school as I once did--I was looked upon as having become very
idle. My mind, however, was not idle, I know, for I was continually
thinking over the idea which had got possession of it. By allowing my
thoughts to rest on that idea, and that alone, the desire increased till
I persuaded myself that the only life I could possibly lead with
satisfaction was that of a life at sea. All this time the curious thing
was, that of the sea itself I practically knew nothing. Born and bred
in an inland county, my eyes had actually never rested on the wide
ocean. Still, I had formed a notion of what it was like; and I fancied
that a sailor was always wandering about from one wild country to
another, and going through a rapid succession of wonderful adventures.
I forgot all about those long voyages when ships are weeks and weeks
together out of sight of land, and the many weary and often anxious
hours which a seaman has to pass away; nor did I consider that he has
frequently the same voyage to make over and over again, the same lands
to visit, and the same people to see. However, though I looked with no
little pleasure on the idea of becoming a sailor, I had still greater
satisfaction in the anticipation of visiting strange and far-distant
lands, in meeting with adventures, and in becoming acquainted with the
various tribes of the human race.
With the absorbing passion which now possessed me ruling every thought,
I could no longer properly fix my attention on my Latin and Greek books
and usual school-lessons; and as for nonsense, and even sense verses, I
abandoned all attempts at making them. I am ashamed to say that I
allowed others to do the work which passed as mine; and even though I
managed to present the required written exercises, I was constantly in
richly-deserved disgrace for the neglect of those tasks which no one
else could perform for me. I was decidedly wrong; I ought to have had
the right feeling and manliness to perform to the best of my power those
lessons which it was the master's duty to set me, and then I might with
a clear conscience have indulged freely in my own peculiar tastes. As
it was, when the Christmas holidays arrived, I was sent home with a
letter from the master containing severe complaints of my inattention
and negligence of my duties, while my brothers were complimented on the
progress they had made in their studies. The master told me he should
write, but our father received us all in the same affectionate way; and
as he said nothing on the matter, I hoped that he was not going to take
notice of it.
The first joyous days of getting home had passed over, and New-Year's
Day come and gone, before he broached the subject. From his love and
kind heart, he would not before mar my boyish happiness. He then,
summoning me into his study, spoke seriously to me about my past
conduct. I frankly owned my fault, and confessed to him the true cause
of my idleness. From his answer I found, to my very great satisfaction,
that Captain Frankland had already talked to him about my wish to go to
sea, and had expressed his readiness to take me.
"I cannot, however, allow you, my dear Harry, to leave school under the
present circumstances," said my father. "You must learn to obey your
superiors, and to command yourself, before you will be fit to go into
the world. Whatever course of life you pursue, you will have many
things to do which you will dislike, or in which you may from
inclination take no interest; but this will afford you but a poor excuse
for not doing your duty. What do you think the captain of a ship would
say to an officer who had not obeyed his orders, should the latter
remark to him, `Really, sir, I felt so little interest in the matter, or
I disliked it so very much, that I could not bring myself to perform the
work?' Yet this is what you have been doing, my boy. I will say no
more on the subject. You will go back to school at the end of the
holidays; and if I find that, from a sense of duty, you are attending,
to the best of your power, to the studies your master may select for
you, I will take your wishes into my very earnest consideration, and see
how I can best carry them out for your advantage."
I felt how just, and kind, and considerate my father was, and I resolved
to the utmost to follow his advice. I shall never forget those
Christmas holidays. They were very, very happy ones. Our eldest
brother Jack, who was at college, was a very clever fellow, and put us
up to all sorts of fun. In doors and out of doors there was nothing he
did not think of. He never bullied, and wasn't a bit spoiled. He was
going to study at the bar, that he might better look after the family
property. James, the next, was the quiet one; he was preparing for the
Church. Then came our third sister, Mary. Julia and Isabella were
older than any of us. Mary was my favourite. There was nothing she
wouldn't do for me--or, for that matter, for any of us. She did not
like baiting our hooks when we were fishing, but still she did it when
we asked her; and I do really believe that the worms didn't feel half
the pain they otherwise would when handled by her fingers. She'd go out
with us rat-catching and badger-hunting, and yet, to see her in the
drawing-room, there wasn't a sweeter, softer, more feminine girl in the
county. When we were at school, she wrote us twice as many letters as
anybody else, and told us how the pony and the dogs were getting on; and
how old Martin had found a wasp's nest, which he was keeping for us to
blow up--and all that sort of thing. Willie and Georgie were at school
with me, and Herbert was going the next half, and after him were two
more girls, so that Mary had no companions of her own age, and that made
her, I suppose, stick so much more to us than the older ones did, who
were now young ladies--old enough to go to balls, and to talk when any
gentlemen called.
I cannot stop to describe our amusements. I went to school with a more
hopeful, manly spirit than I ever did before, and to the astonishment of
Dr Summers, set to with a will at everything he gave me to do, and
before long was nearly up at the head of my class. I wished to please
my father, and to follow his advice, that I am sure of; but I confess
that I was powerfully influenced by another motive. From what he had
said, I saw that this was the surest way of obtaining the accomplishment
of my wishes.
Hoops and driving had gone out, and cricket and marbles were in, and the
days were getting long and warm, when I received a letter from Mary,
saying that Captain Frankland had come home, and had written to our
father, but she did not know what had passed between them. I always
told Mary all I thought and wished; and though she cried very much at
the thoughts of my going away, yet she promised to help me as best she
could. How she was to help, I did not exactly know. I tried to console
her by promising to bring her back parrots without end from Africa, and
shawls from India, and fans and carved ivory bones from China, and
poisoned arrows, and darts, and tomahawks, and all sorts of dreadful
weapons, from America and the islands of the Pacific. Indeed, had I
fulfilled my promises to the letter, I could pretty well have loaded a
ship with my intended gifts. My father said nothing, and we all went
home together at the usual time. At the end of this half, a very
complimentary letter had preceded me.
"I am glad to hear that Dr Summers is pleased with you, my dear boy,"
said my father, and I thought his countenance wore a graver expression
than usual. "Tell me, are your wishes the same as when you last left
home?"