We and the World: A Book for Boys. Part I

tholes o'

re, as mony a gu

h Pro

excitement and enthusiasm that are rare elsewhere, but that it is not to be beat

us time to have a look at them, though Alister (who seemed to have learned a good deal during his four days in the docks) whispered little bits of information about one and another. Then the whole shore seemed to be covered by enormous sheds, and later on it got farther off, and then the land lay distant, and it was very low and marshy and most dreary-looking, and I fancied it was becoming more difficult to keep my footing at the window; and just when Alister had

the roughest wind that could blow, and he sat on a box and looked at me half

aid kindly. "Would ye think of going up and disclosing you

and added more feebly, "I dare

said the

d not hear, and did not trouble myself to ask questions about, being utterly indifferent to the answers. But I felt no temptation to give in, I only remember feeling one intense desire, and it amounted to a prayer, that if these intolerable sensations did not abate, I might at any rate become master eno

now. They can but pitch us overboard, and I've read that drowning

re the cheekiest, coolest hands of all the nasty, sneaking, longshore loafers he had ever had to deal with in all his blessed and otherwise than blessed

on

t presentment of myself that my miserable condition would allow. We were soon hauled before the captain, a sensible-faced, red-bearded man, with a Scotch accent rather harsher than Alister's, in

, amid appreciating chuckles from the crew, the captain replied, that, so sneaks and stowaways always said; a taunt which was too vulgar as repartee to annoy

breath-less interest to me, and as I watched to see if the captain took offence, I noticed that (though they were far less remarkable from being buried in a fat and commonplace countenance) his eyes, li

will ye have been hanging round the docks b

nights in th

did ye take

, with his eyes on the deck: and then suddenly lifting a glance at me out of

t your hands do

our pard

? Can ye use a ne

shion, sir, and I

Wat

round his cap stepped

help to patch the old fore-stay-sa

low voice, but Mr. Waters salut

as Alister moved off, he said, "You're

cotland

ry feeling of kinship, or whether the captain was merely struck by Alister's powerful-looking frame, and thought he might be very useful when he was better fed, I do not know; but I feel sure that

don't nurse invalids here, and if you stop you'll have

, sir,"

t your

ead to foot, at me. And then to my horror, he asked the ques

you steal y

clothes I had on. So I exchanged them, and got these, in a shop he took me to," and being anxious to prove the truth of my tale, and also to speak with the utmost

ister

ses Coh

e sailors who still kept guard over me, and this time the captain's face

es, till the captain cried-"Silence there!" and still chuckling sardonically, added, "Your suit must have

hillings as w

id ten shillings as well, did you? And what the thunder and lightning

, but they seemed to expect me to have been to sea before, and to have some papers to show it. So I stowed away

nd-lubber like you can do, as we don't

and carry coals, and do rough w

id the captain, loo

r, but I was good at athletics when I

ntly. "And supposing you're of no use,

dive. I'm at ho

an you are on

s,

give him something to do. Give him an oil-rag and let hi

s,

est Mr. Johnson to ascertain how much change Mister

s,

d the boatswain, duly saluting my new master as I passed him, and desperately

and constant cheerfulness, make his memory very pleasant to me and to all who served with him, and whose reasons f

but I was conscious that the third mate's eyes were scanning me clos

struggles I got the leather bag from

rom school,

power me. I managed to shake my head instead of speaking, after which I thought I must have died then and there of the agony across my brow. It seemed probable that I should go far to pay for my passage by the amus

aye,

ugh on him just yet. We've al

true

t step had carried him far away; and the boatswain had gripped me by the arm

the oil and things. But don't fall overboard; for we can't aff

ture of oil, vinegar, and sand, and a saturated fragment of a worn-out worsted sock, I had more or less recovered from a violent att

ery grateful that he did carry the heavy brass rods for me on to the poop, where I scrambled after him, and after a short lesson in an art the secret of which appeared to be to rub hard enough and long e

iving freshness of the salt breezes with something that came quite close to hope, and was not far off enjoyment. As to the stanchions, I was downright proud of them, and was rubbing away, brightening the brass, and getting the blood comfortably circulated through my body, when, with the usual running and shouting, a crowd of men poured on to

polished that I could not endure the notion of a speck on their brightness, I lifted them out

o foot, and the scrubbers and swabbers laughed at my gasps as I know I could not have moved their sense of humour if I had had the finest wit in the world. However, I suppose they had had to take as well as give such merriment in their time; and I keenly remembe

able again, but I had found by experience that the great thing was to keep my blood circulating, and that rubbing-up the ship's brass answered this purpose exceedingly well. I

e learnt that the best part of polishing-paste is elbow-grease. It wa

respectfully as it becomes the sm

, I received a far worse shock than the ship's hose had given me. For under cover of the sailors' talk (and they were e

no learning but school learning. For this side attack on me roused the boatswain to reproduce his jokes about elbow-grease versus parley-voo and the pianner, and to add a general principle on his own account to the effect that it was nothing to him if a lad had been "edicated" in a young ladies' boar

ed in, and finding me alone, said, "Would ye dare to come on deck? We're passing under bonny big rocks, with a lightho

t to stir till these were done. Are we going slower?

tence, but soon returned with a face rather more colourless than usual with repress

by a hearty cheer from the deck. By one impulse, Alister and I sprang to our feet and gripped each other by the hand; and I do

eserted, and another youngster had been taken to hospital only the day before we sailed. He had epileptic fits, and though the second mate (whose chief quality seemed to be an impartial distrust of everybody but himself, and a burning desire to trip up his fellow-creatures at their weak points and jump upon them accordingly) expressed in very str

I stuck steadily to some miscellaneous and very dirty work that I had been put to down below; and, as the ship rolled more and more under me, as I ran unsteadily about with buckets

now that the deck is the place to make for, so I bolted with the rest, and caught sight of Alister flying in the same direction as we were. When we got up I looked about me as well as I could, but I saw no rocks or vessels in collision with us

t, Alister

that they sleep in," Alister replied. "I'

t fellow ye

es and numbers. Whisht, man! till I hear his

one. I felt foolish, and I suppose looked so, for Alister burst out laughing and said-"Hech, laddie! it's a sma

you l

e the third mate, who pointed to a sailor behind him, and said-"Follow Francis, a

as he returned our renewed salutations he added-"I hear

y pleasantly call "bread" at sea) and with bins of sugar, coffee, &c., &c. I dare say the stuffiness made him cross (as the nasty smells used to make us in Uncle Henry's office), for he used a good deal of bad language, and seemed very unwilling to let us have the hammocks and blankets. However, Francis got them and banged us well with them before giving them to us to carry. They were just like the others-canvas-colo

from a beam close above my hammock, and being a good deal nettled by my own stupidity and the jeers of the sailors, I sprang at the rope, caught it, and swinging myself up, I dropped quietly and successfully into my new resting-place. Once fairly in and rolled in my blanket, I felt as snug as a chrysalis in his cocoon, and (besides the fact that lying down is a great comfort to people who are not born with sea-legs) I found the gentle swaying of my hammock a delightful relief fro

nd the pilot, it was a very long one; and I think I finished the Thanksgiving and said the Grace of our Lord after it. But I

farm to look for Charlie, and they told us he was sitting up in the ash-tree at the end of the field. In my dream I did not feel at all surprised that Cripple Charlie should have got into the ash-tree, or at finding him there high up among the branches looking at a spider's web with a magnifying-glass. But I thought that the

e on the floor. He left Alister in peace, and I can only think of two reasons for his selecting me for the joke. First that the common sailors took much more readily to Alister from his being more of their own rank in birth and upbringing, though so vastly superior

refastened my hammock, and got into it again, and being pretty well tired o