I felt very sure, from what I saw of Edkins, that he would take good care of Toby. He left me at the George. The captain came at last. He was a broad-shouldered, thick-set man, not very tall, but with fair hair and a most pleasant expression of countenance. Frank, honest, and kind-hearted I was certain he was. He reminded me of my father, except that the squire had a fresh and he had a thoroughly salt.w.a.ter look about him. We were joined at dinner by several officers, and among others by my fellow-pa.s.senger, who proved, as Edkins suspected, to be Mr Bryan, the second lieutenant of the Doris. He amused the company very much by an account of Mr Johnson"s conversation with me.
"He is a very extraordinary fellow, that," said the captain. "He is a first-rate seaman, and thoroughly trustworthy in all professional matters; but I never met his equal for drawing the long bow. I knew him when I was a lieutenant, and could listen to his yarns."
The party laughed heartily at my account of the old applewoman and the little boy, and I felt wonderfully at my ease among so many big-wigs, and began to fancy myself a personage of no small importance. After dinner, however, Mr Bryan called me aside. "I must give you a piece of advice, youngster. I overheard your contest of wit with the boatswain, and I remarked the way you spoke to your superior officers at dinner.
You are now in plain clothes, and the Captain"s guest, but do not presume on their present freedom. You will find the drawing-room and the quarter-deck very different places. Sharpness and wit are very well at times, but modesty is never out of place." I thanked Mr Bryan, and promised to remember his advice.
The next day, with the a.s.sistance of the tailor, I got into my uniform, and, after I had had a little time to admire myself, and to wish that my mother and sisters could see me, Edkins appeared to take me and my traps on board. The frigate had gone out to Spithead, where one of England"s proud fleets was collected. The gig was waiting at the point. I stepped into her with as much dignity as I could command and we pulled out of the harbour. When we got into the tide-way the boat began to bob about a good deal. I felt very queer. "Edkins, is this what you call a storm?" I asked, wishing the boat would be quiet again.
"Yes, in a wash-tub, Mister Merry. As like a storm as a tom-t.i.t is to an albatross," he answered.
My astonishment at finding myself among the line-of-battle ships at Spithead was very great. What huge floating castles they appeared--what crowds of human beings there were on board, swarming in every direction, like ants round their nest. In a few moments a wonderful expansion of my ideas took place. Even our tight little frigate, as I had heard her called, looked an enormous monster when we pulled alongside, and the shrill whistle and stentorian voice of the boatswain sounded in my ears as if the creature was warning us to keep off, and I thought, if it began to move, that we should, to a certainty, be crushed. However, I managed to climb up the side, and as I saw Edkins touch his hat to a tall thin gentleman in uniform, with a spy-gla.s.s under his arm, and say, "Come aboard, sir;" I touched mine, and said, "Come aboard, sir."
"All right," said Edkins, as he pa.s.sed me. "This is the first-lieutenant."
He did not take much notice of me; but soon afterwards Mr Bryan appeared and shook hands with me, and told him that I was a new midshipman, a friend of the captain"s, and was very kind; and after a little time he called another midshipman, and desired him to take me down to the berth and to introduce me to our messmates. My conductor was a gaunt, red-haired lad, who had shoved his legs and arms too far into his trousers and jacket. He did not seem well-pleased with the duty imposed on him. I followed him down one flight of steps, when I saw huge cannon on either side, and then down another into almost total darkness; and though he seemed to find his way very well, I had no little difficulty in seeing where he was going. He stopped once and said, "What"s your name, youngster?" I told him, and turning to the right he caught me by the collar and shoved me through a door among a number of young men and boys, exclaiming, in a croaking voice, "Here"s Master Marmaduke Merry come to be one of us; treat him kindly for his mother"s sake."
Having thus satisfactorily fulfilled his mission he disappeared.
"Sit down, boy, and make yourself at home," said an oldish man with grey hair, from the other end of the table.
"Thank you, as soon as I can see where to sit," said I; "but you don"t indulge in an over-abundance of light down here."
"Ha, ha, ha! Make room for Marmaduke, some of you youngsters there,"
exclaimed the old mate, for such I found he was, and caterer of the mess, "Remember your manners, will you, and be polite to strangers."
"But he is not a stranger," said a boy near me. "Yes, he is, till he has broken biscuit with us," said old Perigal. "That reminds me that you are perhaps hungry, youngster. We"ve done tea, but we shall have the grog and the bread on the table shortly. We divide them equally.
You youngsters have as much to eat as you like of the one, _weevils_ and all, and we drink of the other. It"s the rule of the mess, like the laws of the Medes and Persians, not to be broken. However, we will allow Merry a small quant.i.ty to-night, as it is his first on board ship, but after that, remember, no infraction of the laws;" and old Perigal held up a weapon which he drew from his pocket, and with which, I found, he was wont to enforce his commands in the berth.
His system worked pretty well, and it kept the youngsters from falling into that most pernicious of practices, spirit drinking, and the oldsters were too well seasoned to be injured by the double allowance they thereby obtained.
Altogether I was pleased with my reception, and I fancy my new shipmates were pleased with me. My great difficulty at first was finding my way about, for as to which was the head or after part of the ship I had not the slightest notion, and the direction I received to go aft or go forward conveyed no idea to my mind.
As I was groping my way about the lower-deck, I saw what I took to be a glimmering light in a recess, when a roaring voice said, "Ho, ho! Mr Merry, what--have you come to see me? Welcome aboard the Doris." The light was the nose, and the voice that of Jonathan Johnson the boatswain.
I thanked him, and, guessing it would please him, told him that I should hold him to his promise of recounting his adventures.
"Time enough when we get into blue water, Mr Merry. Under present circ.u.mstances, with every thing to do, and n.o.body fit to do it but myself; for you see, Mr Merry, the gunner and carpenter are little better than nonent.i.ties, as you will find out some day; I have barely time to eat my necessary meals, much less to talk."
I told him that I should anxiously look forward to a fitting time for the expected treat, and asked him where I could find Toby Bluff.
"You shall see him in a jiffy," he answered; and he bellowed out, "Boy Bluff! Boy Bluff! send aft boy Bluff!"
The same words were repeated in various hoa.r.s.e tones, and in less than a minute Toby came running up. He had had the advantage of a day"s experience on board, and had wonderfully soon got into the ways of the ship.
When he saw me he shouted with joy.
"I did think, Master Marmaduke, you never would a coome," he exclaimed.
"But it"s all right now, and my--what a strange place this bees. Not a bit like the Hall, though there"s plenty o" beef here for dinner, but it"s main tough, and the bread for all the world"s like old tiles."
"Be thankful you haven"t to live on grind-stones and marlin-spikes, as I once had for a whole month, with nothing but bilge-water to wash "em down," growled out the boatswain, who heard the observation.
As he told me that he had not time to talk, I did not ask him how this had happened.
I might prolong indefinitely my account of my first days on board ship.
I gradually found myself more and more at home, till I began to fancy that I must be of some use on board. No one could be kinder than was Captain Collyer, and he was constantly employing me in a variety of ways in which he thought I could be trusted. One day he sent for me, and giving me a letter, ordered me to take it on board the flagship, and to deliver it in person to Captain b.u.mpus, the flag-captain. I knew Captain b.u.mpus, because he had been one of our dinner party at the George, and I remembered that he had laughed complacently at my stories.
He was, however, very pompous, not a little conceited, and a great dandy, and I cannot say that I had felt any great respect for him.
We had discussed him in the berth, and the opinion was that he was sweet on one of the admiral"s daughters. At all events he was a bachelor, and having lately made some prize-money, he was supposed to be looking out for a wife to help him to spend it. Moreover it was whispered that he wore a wig, but this he strenuously denied, being very fond of talking of the necessity he was under of having to go and get his hair cut, till it became a common remark that though Captain b.u.mpus got his hair cut oftener than any one else, it never appeared shorter.
I stepped into the second gig, and as Edkins went with me to steer the boat, I had no difficulty in getting alongside the flagship. As we pulled under the stern, I saw several ladies looking out from a stern gallery, which Edkins told me belonged to the admiral"s cabin. I found my way on deck, and touching my hat to the mate of the deck, announced my errand.
"Come, I"ll show you," he said, seeing that I hesitated which way to turn, and he led me up first to one deck and then to another, and then he pointed to a door at which a sentry was standing, and told me to go in there. I found four or five officers in the after-cabin waiting to see Captain b.u.mpus, who was dressing, I collected from their conversation.
Presently a frizzled out Frenchman, the very cut of a stage barber (a refugee, I heard afterwards), entered the cabin with a freshly dressed wig on a block.
"Monsieur de Captain tell me to bring his vig and put it in his cabin.
I do so vid your permission, gentlemen," he observed, as he placed it on the table, and with a profound bow took his departure.
The story went that Captain b.u.mpus, who was fond of good living, had only lately fallen in with poor Pierre Grenouille, and had concluded a bargain on which he prided himself exceedingly. Ostensibly Pierre was engaged to dress his dinners, but privately to dress his hair, or rather his wigs.
There was a general t.i.tter among the officers, in which I heartily joined.
Suddenly, before we had time to compose our features, a door on one side opened, and Captain b.u.mpus appeared in full rig, with his sword under his arm, and his c.o.c.ked hat in hand, looking self-satisfied in the extreme. He started when he saw the wig block and wig, the fac-simile of the one he wore on his head.
"What"s that?" he exclaimed in a voice hoa.r.s.e with rage. "Who put it there?"
No one answered, and dashing down his hat, he seized the wig block and wig, and with an exclamation of anger threw them overboard.
"Now, gentlemen," he said, turning round and attempting to be calm, "what is it you have to say? Really this incident may seem ridiculous,"
he added, seeing that there was still a suppressed t.i.tter going on, "but I detest the sight of a wig block since--you know that Highland tragedy--"
"A man overboard! a man overboard!" was heard resounding in gruff voices from above.
"Oh, poor man, he will be drowned, he will be drowned," came in a sharper treble from the admiral"s cabin.
I heard the shrill pipe of the boatswain"s mate as boats were being lowered, and at that instant into the cabin rushed the French barber, wringing his hands in a frantic state, and exclaiming, "Oh, Captain, your beautiful vig, your beautiful vig, it vill all be spoilt, it vill all be spoilt."
"My wig!" shouted Captain b.u.mpus, in a voice of thunder. "My wig, you anatomy, you mendacious inventor of outrageous impossibilities. Begone out of the cabin, out of the ship, overboard with you, the instant dinner is served!" And he gave the unhappy barber a kick which sent him flying across the after-cabin, through the door of the outer one, against the sentry, who was knocked over, and soldier and barber lay floundering and kicking, and bawling and swearing in their native dialects, amid the laughter of the officers, who ran to see what had become of the little man, and the shouts of the men who were outside.
Meantime the tide was running strong, and the wig block drifted past the other ships of the fleet, from all of which boats instantly put off in chase. They were all a.s.sembled round the fatal block, and the bowman of one, more fortunate than the rest, had got hold of it, and held it up amid shouts of laughter, when a boat from the flagship arrived and claimed the prize.
As the boat returned and pulled up astern, the admiral shouted out, "Have you got the poor fellow?"
"It wasn"t a man, sir; it was only the captain"s wig, sir," was the answer.
"The captain"s what?" cried the admiral.
"Captain b.u.mpus"s wig," shouted the bowman, as he held it up for inspection.