Young Tom Bowling Part 2

They did not pay much attention to me, save to flutter a bit as I moved them about, and especially when I put my hand between the bars of their little wooden prisons; but with Jenny the case was very different.

"Bless you!" as father would say, every one of them knew her and recognised her as a friend and fellow-comrade, for she would sing to them sometimes like a lark, which always set them all on the twitter; goldfinches, linnets, and bullfinches, of which mother kept a large stock, hopping about their cages trying by every means in their power to attract her notice on her entering the shop and coming near them; while the lemon-crested c.o.c.katoo, who was christened 'Ally Sloper,' on account of his fine flow of language, and a habit he had of ruffling up the feathers round his neck when spoken to, making him look as if he had a particularly high and stiff collar on, would shriek out 'Say-rah!' which was mother's name, just as if father were shouting for her to come downstairs in a sort of 'reef topsails' on a stormy night sort of voice.

Our pet thrush 'Jack' also liked her better than any of us, though he was tame enough to eat out of my hand, giving me a friendly nip with his sharp beak occasionally, just to show what he could do if he had a mind to and was not socially disposed.

But he never nipped Jenny's little fingers--not he!

On the contrary, he used to dance with delight if she only uttered his name in a whisper, chuckling first to express his great pleasure at the sight of her, and then breaking into a regular roulade that wound up with the call 'Jenny! Jenny!' or something which we all thought sounded uncommonly like it; for he used to keep it up for a good spell if she went away without speaking to him, or even failed to put in an appearance to wish him "good morning."

Avast there, however.

I'm afraid I am making a long circ.u.mbendibus from my original yarn; but, as mother says of father, it runs in the blood, all the Bowlings having their jaw tackle well abreast, and not knowing when to stop when once they begin; so, being a 'chip of the old block' and a Bowling all over in my love of talking and love for the sea, I hope you will excuse me and let me start afresh again.

I was saying when I went off my course on this tangent about the birds, that little Jenny stepped in just as father and mother were getting to loggerheads about my going on board the _Saint Vincent_, the old lady saying she couldn't possibly spare me, and that he, to put it mildly, was not a very sensible person to think so lightly of losing my services in the wherry just when I was beginning, as she pointed out to him, to be of some use to him.

"But it's no good my talking," she cried at the end of a long harangue, to which father politely listened, with his knife and fork expectantly in hand, and his dinner getting colder and colder on the plate before him. "It's just like you Bowlings all over! You're all headstrong and foolish, and always bent on having your own way, in spite of all the good advice one gives you!"

"All right, Sarah," said father, in his quiet way, bowing, wise man that he was, before the storm. "All right."

"No, it's nothing of the sort," retorted mother. "It's all wrong!"

At that moment a happy diversion was made by the lemon-crested c.o.c.katoo, who, by reason of his highly respectable deportment and polished manners, had been made free of our parlour, and could hop in and out from the shop when the mood seized him, through a small trapdoor or porthole, originally constructed for a window, and which served 'Ally Sloper' as a means of intercommunication between the two apartments, the wily bird being easily able to unlatch at pleasure the swing door of his cage.

"I'll wring your neck!" he screamed in his hoa.r.s.e, sepulchral voice; "I'll wring your neck! Say-rah! Say-rah!"

This, of course, made us all laugh, even mother joining in, though the joke was certainly against her; and taking advantage of the opportunity thus afforded of 'throwing oil on the troubled waters,' little Jenny went on to speak of the advantages to be gained by my going to sea and earning my living as a gallant seaman in the service of my country, pointing out to mother how I had always hankered after father's profession, and that she was sure I would never be contented in any sh.o.r.e billet, and might possibly go to the bad if I had my inclinations thwarted!

"Who knows, too," she added, as a clincher to her argument, "whether Tom may not rise to be a leftennant, ay, and even an admiral, through this good Captain Mordaunt's introduction!"

"Right you are, my la.s.s, bless you!" chimed in father, rising up enthusiastically from his seat and tossing off the gla.s.s of beer he held in his hand. "So he will too, you'll see, or I'm a Dutchman. Hurrah, Sarah, here's good luck to the boy and speedy promotion!"

"'Oo-ray, Say-rah!" screamed 'Ally Sloper,' the c.o.c.katoo, in cordial appreciation, apparently, of this sentiment. "'Ip, 'ip, 'oo-ray!"

That settled the matter.

So, early the following morning, after an affectionate hug from mother and a kiss from Jenny, who came to the corner to see the last of me, I started off for the _Saint Vincent_ with father, who rowed me aboard himself, I being the very first fare he had for the day, though, of course, as you can imagine, he did not earn much by the job.

However, it pleased father at any rate; and, as soon as he had landed me safe and sound at the foot of the accommodation ladder on the port side of the old s.h.i.+p, which lay broadside on, almost on the mud abreast of Haslar Creek, the tide being out, he handed me a big official letter which Captain Mordaunt had given him overnight, as he had promised, recommending me to the commander of the training-vessel, and enclosing certificates of my birth and character.

"There, sonny, them's yer papers," said he, thus laconically wis.h.i.+ng me good-bye, sheering off out of the way of an approaching galley from the sh.o.r.e whose sternsheets were chock-full of big quartern loaves of bread, and then laying on his oars as I skipped up the ladder. "You jest give that there letter to the cap'en when you sees him, and good luck to you, my lad!"

I waved my hand in reply as he sculled away, all alone now in the wherry, towards the flags.h.i.+p to try and pick up some stray pa.s.senger for Gosport or Hardway; and the next instant I had gained the top of the accommodation ladder, and was standing within the entry-port leading on to the middle deck.

"Hullo!" cried a bluejacket stationed at the gangway, who, I noticed, had a red stripe on his arm, and subsequently learnt was one of the s.h.i.+p's corporals, who serve as police always aboard a man-of-war. "What do you want here, boy?"

"I've come to join the s.h.i.+p, sir," said I to him respectfully, seeing that he was some one in authority, and having been taught by father to be deferential to everybody, especially those who were my superiors, respect to rank and station being the very essence of the discipline of the service. "Got a letter for the cap'en."

"Give it here, my lad," said the man more civilly to me, calling to a marine close by. "I'll have the letter pa.s.sed off to him at once; and you'd best step into the office there and wait till the master-at-arms can see you."

So saying, he pointed to a large open sort of cabin, with gla.s.s sides to it, immediately adjoining the entry-port, where I found a couple of boys of about my own age, and who had evidently come aboard on a similar errand.

One of these was a red-haired, short, thickset fellow, with an ugly, bulldog sort of a face, whose beetle-brows met over a pair of ferrety eyes, giving him a most forbidding appearance, and I did not like the look of him at all.

The other was a poor ragged chap, without any shoes to his feet; but he had a jaunty devil-me-care air, and such a pleasant smile and merry twinkle about the corners of his mouth, that I could not help taking a fancy to him, at once hoping that we might be chums.

However, I did not have much time for reflection anent either of them; for hardly had we taken stock of each other, when a stoutish middle-aged man, dressed in a tight-fitting monkey-jacket, ornamented with the letters 'NP' on the collar, and a row of bright crown-and-anchor b.u.t.tons down the front, besides having a gold badge bearing the same device over the mohair band of his blue peaked cap, appeared at the doorway of the cabin, or 'police office,' as the place is properly called, where we three boys were waiting anxiously to learn our fate.

"Ha, humph! A nice lot of raw material to be licked into shape!"

observed this gentleman, whose uniform denoted that he was the master- at-arms, or head of the s.h.i.+p's police. He was evidently cogitating within himself as to our respective and collective capabilities, for he eyed us critically the while as we stood before him, hats off and mute as mice. "Hi, my lads! I fancy I know what you're after this fine morning. You want to join the service, I can see, eh?"

"Yes, sir," the three of us shouted in three different keys--"yes, sir-- yes, sir!"

"Keep your hair on, lads," he said, amused at our eagerness. "Got your papers all right, eh?"

To this the ugly chap, as well as the one to whom I had taken a liking, responded by handing over to the master-at-arms certain official doc.u.ments representing their certificate of birth to show they were of the proper age, and a declaration of their parents that they were joining Her Majesty's Service with their full consent and goodwill.

When it came to my turn, though, I had absolutely nothing to show.

"Hullo!" exclaimed the master-at-arms. "Where are your papers, young 'un?"

I was about to explain; but the s.h.i.+p's corporal who had first spoken to me at the entry-port and taken on to the captain the letter from Captain Mordaunt which father had handed to me, saved all further trouble.

"Here are Tom Bowling's certificates, sir," said he, giving the couple of sheets of foolscap in question to his superior officer. "The cap'en says they're all right, and he's to be entered if he pa.s.ses the schoolmaster and is medically fit."

"That's all right, then, Mister Bowling," said the master-at-arms to me, with a mock bow. "Hullo, though, Bowling--Bowling? It strikes me I've heard that name before, my lad. Father in the service, eh?"

"He _has_ served in the navy, sir," I replied. "But he's a pensioner now, and works as a waterman up and down the harbour."

"Ah, I thought so! He and I were old s.h.i.+pmates together out in the Ashantee War on the West Coast, and I recollect him well. You are very like him, too, I can see now from the cut of your jib, youngster!

You're a regular chip of the old block."

"So everybody says, sir," I said with a grin. "I only hope, sir, I will turn out as good a sailor!"

"Only act up to that wish, my boy, and you'll do! I say, corporal, take these three lads down to the schoolmaster and see what he makes of them."

With that, giving me a friendly nod, the master-at-arms dismissed us, and the s.h.i.+p's corporal conducted us down the nearest hatchway to the lower deck.

At the other end of this we three neophytes were ushered into a large apartment, fitted with rows of desks and benches, arranged in parallel lines, which gave it the appearance of an ordinary schoolroom ash.o.r.e; the only difference being that there was a harmonium on one side, and a cottage piano on the other, while a large circular band-stand stood in between the two in the centre.

Here one of the a.s.sistant-masters took charge of us, placing 'Ugly' and 'Rattlebrains,' as I had mentally christened my two companions, along with myself at a table in a corner of the room, away from the rest of the boys, some three hundred odd in number, who were all busy at their lessons.

No great obstacle to our joining the service was put in our way by the examination which we underwent; for, after being asked to spell a few easy words, tested as to our arithmetic with a sum in simple addition, and the multiplication table as far as six times six, besides being given a short sentence from some reader to write from dictation, the head schoolmaster filled up a form, which he attached to our papers, notifying that we were sufficiently educated to become _Saint Vincent_ boys.

Our ordeal was thus ended.

The three of us were then escorted back again to the police office on the middle deck, where our papers were again handed to the master-at- arms to show that the regulations had been complied with.

This functionary did not seem at all surprised at our reappearance.