"All right, my boy, all right," he observed in an absent way, turning to whisper to the two other gentlemen something, I think, about "old Charley," and "must be pa.s.sed for my old shipmate's sake."--"I quite believe what you say: I do not doubt your word for an instant; for Frank Vernon's son, I am sure, could not but always speak the truth. Did your father come down with you for your examination?"

"Yes, sir," I answered. "He and my mother came with me; and we're all staying at the old 'Keppel's Head Hotel,' on Hardway, sir."

"Humph! I think I know the place you mention, youngster," said he, with a significant twinkle in his eye which made the other two chaplains grin, I could see, at some joke they had between them. "I'll try and call on your father, if I can find time before he leaves Portsmouth.

Tell him when you get back, that old Tangent asked after him, please."

"I'll make a point of doing so, sir," I replied, with a bow, repeating the name after him to make certain. "I will tell him, sir, about Old Tangent."

"Old Tangent, indeed!" cried the old fellow, shaking his fat sides, while the other two examiners roared outright. "You've a pretty good stock of impudence of your own, I'm sure! Be off with you, you young rascal, or I'll pluck you as certain as I'm that Old Tangent with whom you dare to be so familiar!"

His jovial face, however, belied the threat, so it did not occasion me any alarm; and, bowing again politely to the three clerical gentlemen collectively, I bent my steps, on the grin all the way, to the door of the wardroom, which was opened and shut behind me by a marine standing without.

I was Last of the Mohicans, all the other fellows having taken their departure and gone ash.o.r.e long before I got my own happy dismissal.

"By Jove, Jack, I think you may put yourself down as pa.s.sed!" said my father when I subsequently detailed the incidents of my examination, drawing a good augury from my description of what had occurred on board the gunnery ship. "He was always a knowing hand was Old Tangent; and such a remark from him to his brother examiners, would be as efficacious as a whisper in ear of the First Lord's Secretary on your behalf, my boy!"

"Do you remember him, Frank? I mean the gentleman who spoke to Jack."

"Oh, yes, my dear," replied Dad to this question of my mother's, "I recollect Old Tangent quite well. He was always a good-natured fellow and a capital shipmate. Why, he sang the best song of any of us in the mess on board the old _Pelican_!"

"What!" exclaimed my mother, holding up her hands in pious horror at the mention of such an unclerical characteristic. "A clergyman sing songs?"

"Yes, why not?" retorted Dad, who was in his jolliest mood at the prospect of my having pa.s.sed my examination successfully. "They were spiritual songs of course, my dear, I a.s.sure you!"

"No doubt," said mother, drily. "I think, my dear, you can 'tell that yarn to the marines,' as you say in your favourite sea slang. _I_ know what sort of spirits you refer to!"

At which observation they both laughed; and, naturally, I laughed too.

CHAPTER FIVE.

IN WHICH I REALLY "JOIN THE SERVICE."

"Letter for yer, sir, yezsir," said my friend the c.o.c.k-eyed waiter a week or two later, while we were at luncheon, bringing in a long, official-looking doc.u.ment on a salver, which he proceeded to hand me with a smirk and a squint from his c.o.c.k-eye, that seemed to roam all over the apartment, taking in everything and everyone present in one comprehensive glance. "It's jest come in, sir. It were brought by a messenger, sir, from the commander-in-chief's h'office, sir; and I thinks as 'ow it's a horder for yer sir, for to jine yer ship, sir, yezsir!"

"All right my man, that'll do," interposed my father, who from his service-training had a rooted objection to anything approaching to familiarity from servants and other subordinates, besides which he particularly disliked the waiter's "vulgar curiosity" as he styled it, saying he was always prying and poking his nose into other people's affairs; although, I honestly believe my worthy old c.o.c.k-eyed friend only took a laudable interest in my welfare, as indeed he did in the business of everybody who patronised the hotel. "You can leave the letter, waiter, and likewise the room!"

"For me?" said I, taking up the missive, which was inscribed on the outside in large printed characters "On Her Majesty's Service,"

similarly to the one which had brought my nomination from the Admiralty.

"I wonder Dad, what it contains! I suppose, it will tell whether I have pa.s.sed my examination or not?"

"Open it, Jack," said Dad, as soon as the waiter had left the room, flicking his napkin viciously over the sideboard which he pa.s.sed on his way to the door as if he was considerably huffed at not being admitted to our confidence. "Let us hear the news at once, good or bad.

Suspense, you know, my boy, is worse than hanging."

"No, I can't, Dad, I feel too nervous," I replied, not laughing at his joke, as I might have done another time, although the pun was a regular old stager, pa.s.sing the yet unopened letter across the table. "You read it, mother, please."

"You need not be alarmed Jack," said she, smiling, and pointing to the superscription. "See, the direction on it is to 'John Vernon, Esquire, R.N.'"

"Which means, Master Jack, that you have pa.s.sed!" cried Dad, antic.i.p.ating her explanation, and jumping up at once from his seat in great excitement, the contagion of which the next instant spread to me.

"You've pa.s.sed, my boy, there's no doubt about that from this address; and, now, you really belong to Her Majesty's service, hurrah!"

Mother, though, did not say anything, and her hands trembled as she fumbled with the letter, trying to open the envelope without tearing it.

"My boy, my boy!" she exclaimed presently, her eyes filling with tears as she glanced at the contents of the enclosure, which she could only dimly see; albeit, she learnt enough to know that I had pa.s.sed for cadet and was directed to join the _Ill.u.s.trious_ training-ship, then stationed at Portsmouth, like as her successor the _Britannia_ was for a long while prior to her removal to Dartmouth. "It is as we thought, and as you hoped, Jack. You are going to have your wish at last and leave your father and me for your new home on the sea."

The c.o.c.k-eyed waiter broke the rather melancholy silence that ensued.

"Them's outfitters' cards, sir, yezsir," he said, bringing in his salver again presently, piled up with circulars and square pieces of pasteboard which he placed before Dad. "Parties" as heerd tell young gents "as pa.s.sed and wants fer to get the horder for his h'uniforms, sir, yezsir!"

Having thus eased his mind, my old friend bustled out of the room as quickly as he had entered, no doubt afraid of my father giving him another "dressing-down."

Dad, however, was not thinking of the waiter or his cheeky manner for the moment.

"By Jove, Jack!" he cried, "you're getting quite an important personage.

Why, we'll have all the tradesmen of Portsea struggling for your lordly custom if we stop here much longer! Do they say anything about the boy's outfit in that letter, my dear?"

"Oh, yes," replied my mother, taking up the missive, which she had dropped on her knee, and going on to read it over to herself again.

"There's a long list of things that he is ordered to get."

"Then, the sooner we see about getting them the better," said Dad, looking over the letter, too. "We'll go round to Richardson's this afternoon if you like, my dear. I think he's the best man to rig-out Jack, and, besides, I've had dealings with him before."

"Very well, I'll go and put on my bonnet at once," said mother, rising from the table as she spoke. "You must tell the man, Frank, to have the poor boy's things ready as quickly as possible, for I must mark them all before he goes to sea. Ah! there'll be n.o.body to look after his clothes there!"

"No, my dear, no one but his messmates in the midshipmen's berth," said Dad, jokingly, with a wink to me, wishing to get mother out of her sorrowful mood. "_They_ will take precious good care of his wardrobe for him, I wager; that is, unless he keeps his weather eye open and a sharp look-out and never leaves his sea-chest unlocked. All the marking in the world won't save his gear if he does that, I can tell you and him!"

Mother was not to be put off her purpose, however, despite Dad's chaff.

So, when the outfitter sent home my elaborate kit, quite complete in every detail, within a couple of days after our visit to his shop, she carefully marked every article with my name in full, adding some numerical hieroglyph of her own that denoted how many of each description of garment I possessed.

Poor thing! She was firmly convinced in her innocent mind that I would be able to trace, by this means, anything missing from my stock of wearing apparel!

But, notwithstanding all her elaborate precautions, Dad proved a true prophet; for, on my return home from my first commission, I do not believe I had any two of a set out of the dozens of shirts and collars and handkerchiefs I was originally supplied with and which she had so neatly marked.

On the contrary, the scanty contents of my battered old donkey of a chest, whilom gorgeously painted in blue and gold, consisted but of a scant lot of half-worn-out items of clothing, not one of which matched the other, and the owners whereof, judging by the different inscribed initials thereon were as various as their respective conditions of wear!

On the same evening my things came from the outfitter's, and even while my poor mother was engaged on the fruitless task she had imposed on herself of ensuring my continual possession, as she vainly thought of the same, I stole, away from the dinner-table and retired for a brief s.p.a.ce to the little bedroom I still occupied at the top of the hotel, with the way to and from which I was now better acquainted than on the morning after I first slept "under the tiles."

"Ain't we grand!" sang out Dad, chaffingly, when I presently reappeared below in all the glory of my new uniform as a naval cadet.

This was the same then as now:--blue trousers and jacket with crown and anchor b.u.t.tons and a cunningly-shaped little collar, that had a white facing to the lapel and the b.u.t.tonholes of the turn-back worked with twisted cord of the same colour in proper regulation fashion; not to speak of my cap with its golden badge, and the formidable-looking carving-knife of a dirk, twenty inches long in its black scabbard, which I wore at my belt!

"Why, Master Jack, you'll be 'topping the officer' over me now in your war paint," added Dad, after turning me round twice to inspect me. "You are rigged out smart, and no mistake!"

"Don't tease the poor boy, my dear," said my mother, looking at me with fond admiration as most mothers would do, probably, under similar circ.u.mstances. "He looks very nice--very nice, indeed. I'm sure he is the very image of what you were when I first saw you, Frank!"

"Thanks, my dear, for the compliment," replied Dad, bowing to her half-jocularly, half-seriously, while he heaved a deep sigh. "I'm not making fun of Jack at all. I really was thinking how long ago it is since I donned the same uniform like him for the first time. Ah me, thirty years and more have pa.s.sed since then; and I'm an old fogey, while he's just beginning life! I hope, my dear Jack, you'll never do anything to make you ashamed of having put on the Queen's livery!"

"That I won't, Dad," said I emphatically; and I meant it! "I'll try to follow your example, and always recollect I am your son."