""Play him, my dear," cries the mother, "till you see what he is."
""Oh, mother, mother!" she cries out presently, "I"ve caught a midshipman."
""Throw him in, my dear, he"s no good," answered the old lady.
"Presently another sings out, "Mother, I"ve got a bite. I"m sure it"s from a lieutenant, from the way he pulls."
""Let him hang on a little, my dear," says the mother; "may be if you see a commander or a post-captain swimming by, you may cast him off, and hook one of the others instead."
"Presently a fourth cries out, "Oh, mother, I"ve hooked a captain!"
""Run, Jane, run, and help your sister to land him," cries Mrs Thingamebob; and just see the way they"re doing it, so as not to frighten him, and make him turn tail.
"At last another shouts, "Mother, I"ve hooked a master"s mate."
""Then go and cut the line, Susan. Don"t let Nancy land that brute, on any account. He"s the worst of the lot."
"And so it goes on," exclaimed old Grumpus. "However, to my mind they"re all alike. Why, while we have been there a dozen officers from different ships have been and got spliced. It"s lucky for you fellows that you were not there long, or you would have been and done it, and repented it all your lives afterwards."
During the voyage old Grumpus brought out his sketch a score of times, and repeated his story as often, with numerous variations, which afforded us all much amus.e.m.e.nt. He had anecdotes of other descriptions without end to tell, most of them hingeing on the bad way the junior officers of the service were treated. He didn"t say that most of those junior officers were rough diamonds like himself, who would have been much better off if they had not been placed on the quarter-deck.
We had a somewhat long and stormy pa.s.sage, and were half frozen to death before it was over, most of us who had been for years in the West Indies being little prepared for cold weather. We should have been much worse off, however, in a line-of-battle ship, but in the midshipmen"s berth we managed to keep ourselves tolerably warm when below. At length we sighted the coast of Ireland.
"Hurrah, Mr Terence! There"s the old country," said Larry, throwing up his hat in his excitement, and nearly losing it overboard. "If the captain would only put into Cork harbour, we would be at home in two or three days, and shure they"d be mighty pleased to see us at Ballinahone.
What lashings of whisky, and pigs, and praties they"d be after eating and drinking in our honour, just come home from the wars. Och! I wish we were there, before a blazing turf fire, with the peat piled up, and every one of them red and burning, instead of being out here with these cold winds almost blowing our teeth down our throats."
The picture Larry drew made me more than ever wish to get home. Not that I was tired of a sea life, though I had found it a pretty hard one in some respects; but I longed to see my father, and mother, and brothers, and sisters again, and my kind uncle the major, as I had not heard from them for many a long day. Letters in those days were conveyed to distant stations very irregularly. I had only received two all the time I had been away. Indeed, friends, knowing the great uncertainty which existed of letters reaching, thought it scarcely worth while to write them. We could just see the land, blue and indistinct, over our larboard bow, when the wind veered to the eastward, and instead of standing for Plymouth, as we expected to do, we were kept knocking about in the Chops of the Channel for three long weeks, till our water was nearly exhausted, and our provisions had run short. There we were, day after day, now standing on one tack, now on another, never gaining an inch of ground. Every morning the same question was put, and the same answer given--
"Blowing as hard as ever, and right in our teeth."
We sighted a number of merchant vessels, and occasionally a man-of-war, homeward-bound from other stations, but all were as badly off as we were.
At last one morning the look-out at the masthead shouted, "A sail to the eastward coming down before the wind." It was just possible she might be an enemy. The drum beat to quarters, and the ship was got ready for action. On getting nearer, however, she showed English colours, and we then made out her number to be that of the _Thetis_ frigate. As soon as we got near each other we both hove-to. Though there was a good deal of sea running, two of our boats were soon alongside her to obtain water, and some casks of bread and beef, for, as far as we could tell to the contrary, we might be another month knocking about where we were. In the meantime, one of her boats brought a lieutenant on board us.
"Peace has been signed between Great Britain and France," were almost the first words he uttered when he stepped on deck. "I can"t give particulars, but all I know is, that everything we have been fighting for is to remain much as it was before. We are to give up what we have taken from the French, and the French what they have taken from us, and we are to shake hands and be very good friends. There has been great rejoicing on sh.o.r.e, and bonfires and feasts in honour of the event."
I can"t say that the news produced any amount of satisfaction to those on board the _Maidstone_.
"Then my hope of promotion has gone," groaned Nettleship; "and you, Paddy, will have very little chance of getting yours, for which I"m heartily sorry; for after the creditable way in which you have behaved since you came to sea, I fully expected to see you rise in your profession, and be an honour to it."
"What"s the use of talking to sucking babies like Paddy and Tom here about their promotion, in these piping times of peace which are coming on us," cried old Grumpus, "if we couldn"t get ours while the war was going on?"
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
FESTIVITIES AT HOME.
The news of peace was received perhaps with more satisfaction by the men who had no promotion to look for, and who now expected to visit their families, or enjoy themselves in spending their prize-money according to their own fashion on sh.o.r.e.
Parting from the _Thetis_, we continued beating backwards and forwards for another week, when the wind shifting suddenly to the southward, we ran up to Plymouth, and at last dropped anchor in Hamoaze. We lived on board till the ship was paid off. In the meantime, I wrote home to say that Larry and I would return as soon as we could manage to get a pa.s.sage to Cork. Tom Pim was uncertain of the whereabouts of his family, so he also waited till he could hear from them. Nettleship had told us that his mother and sister lived near Plymouth, and he got leave to run over and see them.
"It won"t be a good thing for you youngsters to be knocking about this place by yourselves," he said, on his returning; "and so, having told my mother this, she has invited both of you, with Larry, to come up and stay with us till you can go home. You"ll be much better off than in lodgings, or stopping at an inn, even though you may find it somewhat dull."
Tom at once accepted the invitation, and persuaded me to do so, though I wanted to see some of the fun of Plymouth, which my other shipmates had talked about. I won"t describe the scenes which took place on board,-- the noise and uproar,--the characters of all descriptions who crowded the ship, eager to take possession of the sailors, or rather of the money which lined their pockets. I saw very much the contrary of fun in it. We had then a midshipman"s paying-off dinner on sh.o.r.e, to which some of the ward-room officers were invited. The wine flowed freely.
Healths were drunk and sentiments given, and in a short time most of the party became very uproarious, those who were sober enough on sh.o.r.e being as bad as the rest.
"Come, Paddy," said Nettleship, "we have to get home to my mother"s house to-night, and I can"t introduce you, remember, if you"re not quite yourself."
Tom Pim was ready.
"So am I," I said. "I"ll not take another drop."
Our intended departure being discovered, we were a.s.sailed with hoots, and shouts, and groans.
"Never mind them," said Nettleship. "If we were to be moved by that sort of stuff, those very fellows would be the first to laugh at us another day."
On seeing us gaining the door, several jumped up, intending to bring us back.
"Run for it, Paddy; run, Tom," cried Nettleship. "I"ll guard your retreat. They"ll not stop me."
"Hands off," he shouted, as Grumpus and some others attempted to seize him. "I have made up my mind to go, and go I will, though every one in the room were to jump up and try to bar my pa.s.sage."
Tom and I got safe into the street, where we were joined by Larry, who had been waiting for us; and Nettleship came up, saying that he had got clear off, at the cost of flooring two or three of his a.s.sailants.
"Not a satisfactory way of parting from old friends," he said, "but the only one which circ.u.mstances would permit."
We at once set off, walking briskly, to get as soon as possible away from the scene of our shipmates" revels. We at length reached a pretty little cottage, a short way out of Plymouth, where Mrs Nettleship and her daughter received us in the kindest manner possible. I was struck by the appearance of the two ladies, so nicely dressed, and quiet in their manners, while the house seemed wonderfully neat and fresh, greatly differing from the appearance of Ballinahone. It was the first time in my life that I had ever been in an English house. When Nettleship talked of his mother"s cottage, I had expected to see something like the residence of an Irish squireen. Both inside and out the house was the same,--the garden full of sweetly-scented flowers, the gravel walks without a weed in them, and the hedges carefully trimmed.
Then when Tom and I were shown to the room we were to occupy, I was struck by the white dimity hangings to the beds, the fresh curtains and blinds, the little grate polished to perfection, and a bouquet of flowers on the dressing-table. Tom was not so impressed as I was, though he said it reminded him of his own home. Miss f.a.n.n.y was considerably younger than Nettleship, a fair-haired, blue-eyed, sweetly-smiling, modest-looking girl, who treated Tom and me as if we were her brothers.
Nettleship and Tom accompanied me into Plymouth each morning, that I might learn if any vessel was sailing for Cork, and thus be saved the journey to Bristol, with which place and Ireland, as there was a considerable amount of trade carried on, I was told that I should have no difficulty in obtaining a vessel across. I was so happy where I was, however, that I was less in a hurry than might have been supposed. I had no want of funds for the purpose, for I had received my pay; and a good share of prize-money for the vessels we had captured was also due to me, though, as Nettleship told me, I must not count upon getting that in a hurry.
At last, one morning, on going to a shipbroker, who had promised to let me know of any vessel putting into Plymouth on her way to Cork, he told me that one had just arrived, and would sail again in a few hours. I at once went on board the _Nancy_ schooner, and engaged a pa.s.sage for Larry and myself, and then hurried back to wish Mrs Nettleship and her daughter good-bye. My old shipmates returned with me, and Larry carried our few traps over his shoulder, as I had not possessed a chest since mine was lost in the _Liffy_.
"Good-bye, Paddy, old fellow," cried Nettleship. "If I get appointed to a ship I"ll let you know, and you must exert your interest to join her; and I hope Tom also will find his way aboard. We have been four years together without so much as a shadow of a quarrel; and if we were to spend another four years in each other"s company, I"m sure it would be the same."
Tom merely wrung my hand; his heart was too full to speak.
"Good-bye, Mr Pim," said Larry, as the schooner"s boat was waiting for us at the quay. "Your honour saved my life, and I would have been after saving yours, if I had had the chance, a dozen times over."
"You saved it once, at least, Larry, when you helped to get me out of the water as the boat was leaving the _Cerberus_ and I hope that we may be again together, to give you another chance."
"There"s nothing I"d like better. May Heaven"s blessing go with your honour," said Larry, as Tom held out his hand and shook his warmly.
Our friends stood on the sh.o.r.e as we pulled across the Cat.w.a.ter to the schooner, which lay at the entrance. Directly we were on board she got under weigh, and with a fair breeze we stood down Plymouth Sound. She was a terribly slow sailer, and we had a much longer pa.s.sage to Cork than I had expected. We had no longer any fear of being snapped up by a privateer, but, seeing her style of sailing, I hoped that we should not be caught in a gale on a lee sh.o.r.e, or we should have run a great chance of being wrecked.
Larry made friends with all on board, keeping them alive with his fiddle, which he was excessively proud of having saved through so many and various dangers.