_Mr. Midshipman Glover tells of his home-coming_
Hurrah! How jolly good it is to be back at home once more! You
shore-going loafers don't know what it is like to feel that in an hour
or two you will drop the Ushant light and pick up the Eddystone. It's
pretty bad sometimes when it is the other way about, and you are going
away and don't know how long it will be before you will see Old England
again; but it's just worth it all to come back, see the Eddystone
sticking up out of the sea, and then make Plymouth and the green hills
of Devonshire and of Cornwall.
You people who stay at home all your lives don't know what England is
like till you have lost sight of her.
Toddles, Mellins, and I, we were just fizzing over with happiness, and
stayed up all the night, and had a bet as to who would spot the
Eddystone first, the officer of the watch on board that P. & O. letting
us stay in a corner of the bridge so long as we didn't make a row and
move about much.
Toddles saw it first, so Mellins and I had to stand a jolly good
blow-out at the very first opportunity. I was all right now, as right
as rain, and had been quite well for a fortnight at least.
We ran into Plymouth Sound early in the morning; they sent out Admiralty
tugs to take all our people ashore. We three midshipmen got leave till
night, and the three of us had a splendid time. Mellins swore that he
had never eaten so much in his life, and we all hoped that he
hadn't--even he was rather sorry for himself afterwards.
They let us go on leave next day. The Admiralty had given us a month as
a special reward (whoop! wasn't that luck?), and it was just splendid
going home.
My Pater lives in Hampshire, and has a jolly snug house right in the
country, miles away from the railway. Effie, my little sister, met me
in a dog-cart and drove me home. She looked as smart as a new pin, but
you can't imagine how shabby I was, for, somehow or other, I had lost
all my plain clothes, and had to borrow odds and ends from Toddles, and
they were much too small for me, and my boots were Purser's Crabs[#],
done up with string. But it didn't matter a cent.
[#] Boots of Admiralty pattern supplied to the men from the Paymaster's
stores.
Effie made her pony go like the wind, I can tell you, and my battered
old uniform tin case went jumbling into the road--it couldn't damage it
any more, though--and we had to lash it in.
You feel such a man when you get into the train, and, well--when you get
out at the sleepy old station and drive along the same old road and meet
all the village people you've known ever since you can remember, you
feel quite young.
We met Toby, the stable-boy, half a mile from the house, leading the
farm horses back from watering, and I couldn't resist this, made Effie
stop, jumped on the back of one of them, and raced her home.
She simply flew along, but I overhauled her and won easily, tearing up
the drive; and though there were the Pater and my Mother and everybody
at the door waiting for me, I couldn't stop the horse, and he turned
sharply into the stable-yard and pitched me off into a bush.
Jolly old bush! I'd been pitched into it fifty times.
We sailor men look forward to that day coming home all the time we are
away, and it's worth it, I can tell you.
I'd brought everyone of them a present of sorts--a curio from Hong-Kong,
or something I had picked up on the island--a rifle from One Gun Hill
for the Pater, and a great piece of shell which had burst aboard the
_Laird_ for my Mother, and she couldn't get it out of her head that that
was what had wounded me.
Then and there I had to show them all my wounds--I had four, you know.
First, that little one on my head, which you could find if you looked
carefully; and the one on my chest which had given all the trouble, and
had left a pretty big scar; and the stab on my leg, and the bullet wound
just below it.
Wasn't the Pater proud, and so was Effie; but my Mother burst into
tears, and then, I think, we all cried and hugged each other and had a
ripping time; and I told them that Toddles and Mellins were coming to
spend a fortnight with me, and that Mellins loved sardines and cake--the
richer the better--and told Effie she would have to marry one of them,
for they were the best fellows in the world, and she said she would, and
so that was all right.
Of course we quieted down afterwards, and then I had to go and show Toby
my wounds, and the old housekeeper, and she cried too, and gave me some
home-made bread, with honey spread half an inch thick on it, the
honey-comb in it too, for she knew I liked that.
And the bed too--same little bed, in the same old attic, with a funny,
poky little window looking over the kitchen garden--it had never looked
more cosy; and my Mother came up when I turned in, and cried when she
saw my pyjamas all in holes, and knelt down by my bed and said her
prayers, and I said mine to her, and she cried again, and I blubbered a
little, I was so absolutely happy; and Effie came in very early next
morning, and we had a jolly good pillow fight.
Good things cannot last for ever. It's just as well too, I expect, or
else we should never know they were so good.
Toddles and Mellins came presently, and we had simply a ripping time;
but then we were all appointed to different ships, and had to join them
at Portsmouth.
I hadn't forgotten Milly and the old Admiral at Fareham, and had taken
him the will, as I promised Hopkins. I don't think the lawyers made any
difficulty about it, though I believe it took a precious long time to
get the money over from America.
Milly wanted to kiss me--I always dreaded that--but I shook her hand
hard and edged away; so that didn't come off, and she never tried again.
She wanted to know a lot about Hopkins, but she never found out that he
had been a pirate and was fighting against us, and I don't think anyone
ever told her. I'm sure the Captain never would.
She was properly engaged to him now, and things seemed to be going on
very serenely.
I went down to the village and saw him and Dr. Fox, and Jenkins too, in
mortal fear of his wife--I guessed that at once--and the Captain asked
me to his wedding, which he hoped would take place in August.
Dr. Fox was as grim as ever. He was opening a parcel when I went in,
and I heard him say in his snappy voice, "Look what the silly fools have
sent me! What a waste of time, and I have nowhere to put the thing."
It was a brass model of the big Krupp gun in its gun-pit, and round the
oak stand was a silver plate with the names of all the _Laird's_ men on
the lower deck who had fought on One Gun Hill.
I myself should have been jolly proud to get it, but Dr. Fox gave one or
two funny coughs, and said again, "What silly fools! I shall have to
write and thank them, I suppose. I hate writing letters."
I met Mr. Saunderson that day just outside Portsmouth Dockyard, walking
along the Hard. He stretched out his huge hand and lifted me half off
the ground.