"Because my father had a better opportunity for getting me in the merchant service."

"Oh!"

I felt as if I should never like Mr Nicholas Walters, for he was rather consequential in his way, and seemed disposed to lord it over me on the strength of having made one voyage. But I consoled myself with the thought that it was hard for any one to make himself agreeable on a day like that; and then as we sat listening to the banging and thumping about overhead, I began to think of my promise to my father, for I had promised to make the best of things all through the voyage, and not be easily damped.

My musings were cut short by my companion.

"I say," he cried, "you seem a lively sort of officer."

"One can't feel very lively just coming away from home amongst strangers," I replied.

"Bosh! You're talking like a boarding-school girl. What do you think of the skipper?"

"The captain? I haven't seen him yet."

"Yes, you have. That was he who let go at the men up aloft. He's a rough 'un, and no mistake. Berriman--I don't think much of him nor of the ship; I shall shift into another line after this trip. It isn't good enough for me."

"I wonder whether I shall talk like that," I thought to myself, "when I've been on a voyage." Then aloud: "Shall we go on deck for a bit, and see if we can do anything?"

"Not likely," was the shortly uttered reply. "What's the good? Get wet through in this mizzling rain. Let's wait for lunch. There'll be a good one, because of the pa.s.sengers' friends being on board. Some say they'll go down to Gravesend with us. Here, you're all green yet; you leave everything to me, and I'll tell you what to do."

I said "Thankye," and he went on cross-examining me.

"Smoke?" he said.

I shook my head.

"Never mind, I'll teach you; and, look here, if it's fine this afternoon, I'll take you round and introduce you to all the officers and people."

"But I thought you were as strange as I am," I said.

"Well, I don't know the people themselves, but I know which will be the mates and doctor and boatswain, and I can show you all about the ship, and take you aloft, can't I?"

"Oh yes, of course," I said.

"You'll find I can be a deal of use to you if you stick to me, and I can take your part if any of the other middies try to bounce you."

"Will there be any other midshipmen?" I asked.

"P'raps. But it's all gammon calling us middies. We are only a kind of apprentices, you know. It isn't like being in a man-o'-war."

As it happened, a gleam of sunshine tried about half-an-hour after--just as I was growing terribly sick of my companion's patronising ways--to get in at the little cabin-window, and failed; but it gave notice that the weather was lifting, and I was glad to go on deck, where the planks soon began to show white patches as the sailors began to use their swabs; but the bustle and confusion was worse than ever. For the deck was littered with packages of cargo, which had arrived late, with Auckland and Wellington, New Zealand, painted upon them in black letters, and some of these appeared to be boxes of seeds, and others crates of agricultural implements.

Then we were warped out of the dock into the river, a steam-tug made fast to the tow-rope ahead, and another hooked herself on to the port side of the great ship to steady her, as she began to glide slowly with the tide, now just beginning to ebb, along through the hundreds of craft on either side.

I looked sharply round for that monarch of our little floating world-- the captain; but he had gone ash.o.r.e to see the owners again, so my new friend told me, and would come aboard again at Gravesend. But I had a good view of the crew, and was not favourably impressed, for they appeared to be a very rough lot. A great many of them had been drinking, and showed it; others looked sour and low-spirited; and there was a shabby, untidy aspect about them, which was not at all what I had expected to see in the smart crew of a clipper ship, while my surprise was greater still when I saw that four of the men evidently hailed from China, and as many more were the yellow, duck-eyed, peculiar-looking people commonly spoken of on board ship as Lascars.

The mates were so busy and hot, trying to get the decks cleared, and succeeding very slowly with the unpromising material at their command, that we saw very little of them, and I looked eagerly round to see what our pa.s.sengers were like; but there were so many people on board that it was hard to pick out who was for the other side of the world and who was to stay on this.

The time pa.s.sed, and I ate as good a dinner as my companion that evening, the first mate taking the head of the table; and that night, when all the visitors had said good-bye, and were gone ash.o.r.e, and I had retired to my bunk, it seemed as if I had been on board for days. I lay there longing to throw shoes or brushes at Walters, who was lying on his back just under me, and breathing so exceedingly hard, that it was as if he kept on saying _Snork_ in a nasty spiteful manner on purpose to keep me awake. And it did keep me awake for some time. At last I dropped asleep for about a minute, as it seemed to me, and then started up and knocked my head against the woodwork.

"Only cold water, lad," said a voice. "I say, you, been to sea, and not know how to tumble out of your berth without knocking your pumpkin."

I was confused for the moment by my intense sleepiness, and the blow I had given my head, so that I could hardly make out where I was. Then as I awoke to the fact that my brother middy was half-dressed, and that he had been holding his dripping sponge to my face, I crawled out, or rather lowered my legs down, and began to dress.

"Look sharp," said my companion; "don't stop to shave."

CHAPTER THREE.

"Well, youngsters!" saluted us as soon as we stepped on deck, and the bluff, brown-faced captain gave me a searching look. "Ready for work?"

"Yes, sir."

"That's right. Well, I don't want you yet. Run about the ship, and keep out of my way. That'll do for the present. Be off!"

He was rather rough, but it was in a good-tempered fashion, and I felt as if I should like the captain in spite of a whisper from Walters which sounded like "boor."

Then feeling free for the day, I upset my new friend and patron by going amongst the men and pa.s.sengers as they came on deck.

"Here, don't you be so fast," said Walters, as I was hurrying from place to place asking questions of the sailors, and finding interest in everything on board, where, though bearing a certain similarity, all was so different to the arrangements upon a yacht.

"Fast!" I said, wonderingly.

"Yes," said Walters, shortly. "You'll be getting into trouble. You'd better, now you're so new, let me lead, and I'll tell you all that you want to know."

"Mind your eyes, youngsters," sang out a good-looking, youngish man, "Now, my lads, right under, and lash it fast."

"Second mate," whispered Walters to me, as about a dozen men dragged a great spar, evidently an extra top-mast, close under the bulwarks, to secure it tight out of the way.

"Quite right, youngster," said the officer, who seemed to have exceedingly sharp ears, and then he gave me a nod.

"Hang him and his youngsters," grumbled Walters as we went forward. "He has no business to speak like that before the men."

"Oh, what does it matter?" I said. "Look there, at that thin gentleman and the young lady who came on board yesterday evening. He must be ill.

Oh! mind," I cried, and I sprang forward just in time to catch the gentleman's arm, for as he came out of the cabin entrance, looking very pale, and leaning upon the arm of the lady, he caught his foot in a rope being drawn along the deck, and in spite of the lady clinging to him he would have fallen if I had not run up.

"Don't!" he cried angrily, turning upon me. "Why do you leave your ropes about like that?"

"John, dear!"

Only those two words, spoken in a gentle reproachful tone, and the young lady turned to me and smiled.

"Thank you," she said; "my brother has been very ill, and is weak yet."

"Lena," he cried, "don't parade it before everybody;" but as he turned his eyes with an irritable look to the lady and encountered hers, a change came over him, and he clung to my arm, which he had thrust away.

"Thank you," he said. "Give me a hand to the side there. My legs are shaky yet." Then with a smile which made his thin yellow face light up, and gave him something the look of his sister, as he glanced at my uniform--"You're not the captain, are you? Ah, that's better," he sighed, as he leaned his arms on the bulwark, and drew a deep breath.