



Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England




Off to Sea, by WHG Kingston.

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OFF TO SEA, BY WHG KINGSTON.

CHAPTER ONE.

MY BIRTH AND EDUCATION.

From my earliest days I have been known as Jovial Jack Junker.  I got
the name, I believe, from always being in good humour, and seeing the
bright side of things.  Whatever I ate did me good, and I never had had
an hour's sickness in my life; while if things happened to go wrong one
day, I knew they would go right the next.  People said I was of a happy
disposition; I suppose I was.  I always felt inclined to be singing or
whistling, and when I did not, it was because I knew I ought to keep
silence--in church, for instance, or in the presence of my elders, who
happened to be engaged in conversation.  Still, I was not born, as the
saying is, with a silver spoon in my mouth, nor did I possess any great
worldly advantages.  I did not trouble myself much about the future, I
must confess that.  If I got what I wanted, I was contented; if not, I
expected to get it the next day or the day after.  I could wait; I
always found something to amuse me in the meantime.  My father was a
marine--a man well known to fame, though not the celebrated "Cheeks."
He was known as Sergeant Junker.  He had several small sons and
daughters--young Junkers--and when I was about twelve years of age, he
was left an inconsolable widower by the untimely death of our
inestimable mother.  She was an excellent woman, and had brought us up,
to the best of her ability, in a way to make us good and useful members
of society.  She was indeed a greater loss to us than to our poor
father; for, as my elder brother Simon observed, as he rubbed his eyes,
moist with tears, with the back of his hand--

"You see, Jack, father can go and get another wife, as many do; but we
can't get another mother like her that is gone, that we can't, nohow."

No more thorough testimony could have been given to the virtues of our
mother.  She was a superior woman in many respects, and she was of a
very respectable family, and had a nice little fortune of her own; but
she had the common weakness of her sex, and fell in love with the
handsome face of our honest, worthy father, Ben Junker the marine, at
the time a private in that noble corps.  She did not like his name, but
she loved him, and overcame her prejudice.  He could, at the period I
speak of, scarcely read or write; but she set to work to educate him,
and so far succeeded, that, being a very steady man, he rose in due
course to be a sergeant.  She had the ambition of hoping to see him
obtain a commission; but he used to declare that, if he did, nothing
would make him more unhappy, as he should feel exactly like a fish out
of water.  He was thus, at the time of which I am speaking, still a
sergeant.  Our mother, in consequence of the income she enjoyed, was
able to give her children a much better education than we should
otherwise probably have obtained.  At the time of her death, it would
have been difficult to find in our rank of life a more happy, contented,
and better-conducted family.  Our father, as I have said, was at first
inconsolable; but he was of a happy, contented disposition, as it is
very necessary that marines, as well as other people, should be--a
disposition which I fortunately inherited from him.  He took the rough
with the smooth in life, as a matter of course.  A favourite song of
his, which he used to hum, was--

  "What's the use of sighing,
  While time is on the wing?
  Oh! what's the use of crying?
  Then merrily, merrily sing
  Fa! la!"

Consequently, as Simon said he knew he would, he began in a short time
to look out for another wife; and, unhappily for us, fixed on a widow
with a family.  She was, however, a very amiable woman; in fact, her
great fault was, that she was too amiable, too soft and yielding.  She
could not manage to rule her own family, and a most uproarious, mutinous
set they were.  From the time they came to the house there was no peace
or quiet for anyone else.  They, indeed, soon took to try and rule over
us with a high hand.  Her girls used to come it over our girls, and her
boys over our boys.  Brother Simon, who was bigger and stronger than her
eldest, more than once threatened that he would thrash them all round,
if they had any more nonsense, and that invariably made our poor
stepmother burst into tears, and plead so hard for her rebellious
offspring, that the good, honest fellow had not the heart to put his
threat into execution.  At last some of us could stand it no longer.  As
Simon was old enough, he went one day, without saying anything to
anybody, and enlisted in the marines.  Bill, our second brother, got our
father to apprentice him to a ship-carpenter; and, after no little
trouble and coaxing, he promised to let me go on board a man-of-war.  He
did so, however, very unwillingly.

"You don't know the sort of life that you will have to lead aboard ship,
Jack," he observed.  "Boys afloat are not the happy-go-lucky sort of
chaps they seem on shore, let me tell you; but, to be sure, they have
got discipline there, which is more than I can say there is to be found
in a certain place that you know of."  And my father uttered a deep
sigh.

We were walking, one evening after tea, up and down our bit of a garden,
while he smoked his pipe.  He was allowed to live out of barracks, and
we had a small cottage a little way off.

"I don't know, Jack, but what I should not be sorry, if my company was
ordered on service afloat," he observed, confidentially, after a
minute's silence.  "Your new mother is a good woman--a very good woman;
about her I made no mistake, though she is not equal, by a long chalk,
to her that's gone; but oh!  Jack," and he sighed again, "I did not take
into account those young cubs of hers.  They will not rest till they
have driven your sisters out of the house, as they have driven the boys;
and then--and then--why, I suppose, they will drive me away too!"

My poor father!  I sighed at the thoughts of his domestic happiness
being so completely destroyed, in consequence of the advice of King
Solomon not having been followed--the rod having been spared, and the
children spoiled.

The following day, my father being sent on duty to Portsea, took me with
him.  Soon after we landed, I met, just on the inner end of the Common
Hard, an old friend of mine, Dick Lee, a waterman.

"Father," I said, "if Dick will let me, I'll stop, and have a pull in
his wherry.  As I am going to sea, I should like to learn to row better
than I now do."

My father, glad to keep me out of harm's way, told me that, if Dick
wished it, I might remain with him.  Well pleased, I ran down the Hard,
and jumped into old Dick's wherry.  Dick intended that I should sit in
his boat, and just practise with the oars, but I had no notion of that
sort; so, casting off the painter, I shoved away from the shore.  I kept
pulling up and down for some time, and round and round, till my arms
ached; when, determining to take a longer voyage, I turned the boat's
head out into the harbour.  The tide was running out: I went on very
swimmingly, I did not think of that.  I had not, however, got very far,
when I heard old Dick's voice shouting to me--

"Come back, Jack, come back, you young jackanapes!"

Dick was in a rage, no doubt about that.  I pulled round, and in spite
of all my efforts could make no headway.  Dick shouted, and swore, but
to no purpose.  I might have cracked my sinews with pulling, but still
the boat would keep drifting down and down, running a great risk of
getting athwart-hawse of some of the vessels moored a dozen yards below
me.  At last, Dick did what he might as well have done at first--stepped
into another boat with his mate, and came after me.  He soon brought me
back as a prize.  His temper was in no way soothed, though I cried out,
again and again, I could not help it.

"Jump ashore now, lad," he said, as we touched the Hard.  "Next time
you'll do what I tell you you may do.  I never said you might go and run
the chance of getting the boat stove in, and yourself drownded.  I keeps
my family in order, whatever other people may do."

Obeying old Dick, I stood disconsolately on the Hard, while he took his
fare on board, and pulled away across to Gosport, without deigning to
waste another word on me.  However, I soon recovered my spirits, and
amused myself making an excursion over the huge logs of timber that
occupy a considerable space in that nook of the harbour.

I was running along on the more steady pieces of timber which formed the
boundary of the pond, when I saw a boy in a boat, placed very much in
the position from which I had just escaped.  In vain he attempted to
stem the tide.  He was evidently not accustomed to a boat.  He looked
round, and saw that the boat was drifting towards the cable of a vessel
moored off the Hard.  I shouted out to him to pull hard with his
starboard oar; but, instead of so doing, he jumped up, and caught hold
of the cable, across which the boat had just then come, letting go at
the same time one of his oars, which fell overboard.  He now clung to
the chain, and the current swept the boat away from under his feet.

"Hold on! hold on, for your life!"  I shouted out; but, instead of so
doing, he let go, expecting to regain his boat.  He tried to swim, but
he was evidently a bad swimmer.  I looked round.  No boat was near.  I
saw there was every chance of his being drowned.  I was a capital
swimmer; so, hoping to save the lad, I plunged in, and followed him.
Just as I was taking the leap, I caught sight of old Dick, coming across
the harbour.  I shouted at the very top of my voice, pointing to the
place where the boy was floating away.  This gave me some hopes that we
should be picked up.  I soon saw that I had miscalculated the distance,
for the boy seemed a very, very long way off.  I had very little hopes
of helping him, and thought it very likely I should get drowned myself,
when I saw a hawser, somewhat slack, stretched across the course down
which the boy was drifting.  "If he has got any sense, he will catch
hold of it," I thought.  How thankful I felt when I saw him grasp it!
As I got near, he cried out--

"Help! help!  I can hold on no longer!"

"Hold on, whatever you do?"  I cried out.  "Oh dear! oh dear!" he
shouted again, "what will become of the boat? what will become of the
boat?"

He was evidently getting somewhat stupid and confused.  I redoubled my
efforts, and grasping the hawser with one hand, caught hold of his
jacket with the other, just as he was relaxing his grasp.

"Now, stupid!"  I cried out, "just catch hold of this rope again, and
hold on!  You don't want to get drowned, do you?"

"No, I don't; but you had no business to call me stupid," he exclaimed,
in an indignant tone.

"If you go and get drowned when there's no need of it, you are stupid,"
I answered; "but if you will hold on tight, till Dick comes and takes us
off, I will say something for you."

My arguments had some effect, for hold on tight he did, I helping him by
the collar of his jacket.  I had enough to do, however, to keep him and
myself afloat, as well as to hold on at the same time.  It seemed to me
that old Dick was a long time coming.  At last I shouted out.

"Ay, ay!" answered his well-known voice, and at last I saw the bow of
his boat coming round from under the stern of a vessel above us.

No one was on the decks of any of the vessels round us, which was the
reason, I suppose, that we were allowed to hang on there so long by
ourselves.

"Well, what mischief have you been after?" asked old Dick, as he hauled
the other boy and me afterwards out of the water.  "Well, you do look
like two drownded rats?"

"He has been after no mischief at all!" exclaimed the other boy, who, in
spite of his recent alarm, had not lost his spirits.

"He jumped into the water to save my life, and he has saved it; and I am
sure my papa and mamma will not think it was any mischief, but will be
ready to thank him very heartily, as I do."

"And who are you, young gentleman?" asked old Dick.  "What business had
you to be tumbling into the water?"

He had begun to pull up the harbour, I should say, placing us in the
stern sheets while he was asking these questions.

"Who am I? you want to know who I am?" said the young gentleman, who was
employed in squeezing the wet out of his clothes; "I am Richard Alfred
Chesterton Plumb," answered the boy, standing up and assuming an air of
dignity; "and I did not tumble into the water, but my boat got away from
me, and I tried to get after it; and that reminds me that she is
floating down the harbour; and so, old gentleman, I will just trouble
you to go in chace of her and try to bring her back."

"Ho! ho! ho!" exclaimed old Dick; "some young bantams do crow loud.
Howsomdever, there is spirit in the lad, no doubt about that!"

"Well, old man," again asked the young gentleman, "are you going after
my boat?"

Old Dick did not deign an answer; but, looking away down the harbour,
espied the boat, and, pulling round, made chase after her.  We were soon
up to her, and Master Richard, as he called himself, wanted to be put
aboard again.

"I can row about till I am dry," he observed.  "What's the odds?"

However, as there was only one oar remaining, this was an impossibility.

"You will only go and get yourself drownded again," said the old man,
"and catch your death of cold sitting in your wet things into the
bargain.  So you just come up to my missus, and she will give you a hot
cup of tea and dry your duds, and then Jack here and I will see you safe
home to your friends."

I have a notion that old Dick was afraid the young master might forget
all about the service which had been rendered him, and having an eye to
the main chance, he was resolved that I should receive a reward--he
himself hoping probably to obtain some remuneration also for his
trouble.  On our way back young Master Richard, who was in no way
disconcerted, espied the missing oar, which had been caught in an eddy,
and drifted in towards the shore.  We got hold of it, and he now seemed
perfectly happy.  We both looked very foolish, I thought, as dripping
wet we followed old Dick up to his house.  The old woman had our clothes
very soon off us, and tumbled us both into their bed.  The young
gentleman whispered to me that it was not very nice, but I was in no way
particular.

"It will not do to be ungrateful.  I would bear anything, rather than
show I did not like it," he added, still whispering.

He at last got rather impatient, and singing out, asked Dick if he would
go and buy him a new suit at Selby's, the tailor's in High Street.

The old man laughed.

"I've got no credit there, young gentleman," he answered.  "Maybe, too,
your friends would not be quite pleased.  Your clothes will be dry
enough in time; and, there now, the water's boiling, and you shall have
a bowl of tea hot enough to take the skin off your mouths."

The steaming liquid was soon brought to us, and after drinking it,
Master Richard said he felt as warm and comfortable as he had ever done
in his life.  He was only anxious to be off.  At length, however, the
warmth and closeness of the room sent us both off into a sound sleep.
We were awoke by old Dick's voice.

"Well, lads," he said, "are you ready to put on your clothes, and come
along to young master's friends?  I have seen your father, Jack.  He
knows all about them, and says it is all right.  He tells me, Jack," he
whispered, "they're no end of grand people, so I hope you have stepped
into the right boat this time."

I could not exactly understand the meaning of my old friend's remarks,
but I saw that he was well pleased.  Old Mrs. Lee pressed some more tea
and bread and butter on us, and had a sausage frying in the pan.  I was
not sorry to get it; but, after taking a few mouthfuls, the young
gentleman said he was very grateful, but that he had had enough, and
that he expected to find dinner when he got home.

"I could not have eaten another mouthful, even if the old woman had
threatened to throw me into the frying-pan," he observed, as we left the
house, "but I did not like to hurt her feelings."

I had eaten up the remainder of the sausage, so I benefited by Master
Richard's delicacy of stomach.

CHAPTER TWO.

MY FIRST START.

We crossed the water to Gosport, and took our way along the road which
led past the small row in which we lived.  I inquired on my way of old
Dick, if he knew who the young gentleman's father was.

"They say he's a nabob," answered old Dick, "but what a nabob is, I'm
sure I don't know, except that he's a yellow-faced gentleman, with lots
of money, and always complaining of his liver."

Having received this lucid explanation to my question, I rejoined my
young companion.  I thought I might learn more about the matter from
him.

"They say your father is a nabob; is he?"  I asked.

"A nabob?  No," he answered.  "He is a great deal more important
person--he is a brigadier; at least he was in India, and mamma always
speaks of him as the Brigadier, and people always talk of her as Mrs.
Brigadier."

"Then I suppose you are the young Brigadier?"  I said, very naturally.

"No, indeed, I am not," he answered.  "But there is the house.  And, I
say, I am very much obliged to you, remember, for what you have done for
me.  I see you are up to joking; but let me advise you not to come any
of your jokes over my father, or mamma either.  Indeed, you had better
rather try it with him than with her.  You would think twice before you
ever made the attempt again."

Passing through an iron gateway, we proceeded up to the house, which was
some little way from the road.  It was low, with a broad verandah round
it, and I found was known as Chuttawunga Bungalow.  I saw the name on
the side-post of the gateway.  A tall, dark-skinned man, dressed in
white, a broad-rimmed cap on his head, came to the door.  He seemed
rather doubtful as to admitting old Dick and me.

"Here, Chetta, let us in at once!" exclaimed the young gentleman in an
authoritative tone.  "These are my friends.  They have rendered me an
essential service.  The boy saved my life when I was drowning, and the
old man pulled us both out of the water, when we could not hold on much
longer.  Where is my papa?  And, I say, Chetta, do not go and tell Mrs.
Brigadier just yet.  I would rather have the matter over with one of
them first."

I felt rather awe-struck at having to go into the presence of so great a
man, for I had pictured him as a tall, ferocious-looking personage, with
a huge moustache and a military air and manner.  Great was my
astonishment when I saw, seated in an arm-chair, cross-legged, with one
foot resting on a foot-stool, a small man with yellow hair, thin cheeks,
and habited in a silk dressing-gown and nankeen trousers.

"Why, Richard Alfred Chesterton!" he exclaimed in a sharp, querulous
tone, "where have you been all this time?  It is as well your mother had
to go out, or she would have been thrown into a state of great alarm;
and something else, I suspect, too," he said, in a lower tone.

"Well, papa," answered Richard, when the brigadier had ceased speaking,
"you would not address me harshly, if you knew how very nearly you were
having the misery of losing me altogether.  It is a long story, so I
will not now enter into details.  It will be sufficient for you to know
that I was in a boat, and that out of that boat I fell into the
dangerous current of the harbour; and had it not been for the bravery
and gallantry of this young lad whom I have brought with me, I should
have been at this moment food for the fish in the Solent sea, or a fit
subject for a coroner's inquest, had my body been discovered."

The brigadier opened his grey eyes wider and wider, as the boy continued
speaking.

"And, papa, we must not forget this old boatman, too, who pulled the boy
and me--what's your name?  Ay; Jack Junker--out of the water."  Thus
Master Dicky ran on.

"Well, my boy, I am thankful to see you safe, and I wish to express my
gratitude to the brave lad, Jack Junker, who saved your life, and to the
old man who pulled you out of the water.  My friends, I must consult
Mrs. Brigadier Plumb, how I can best show you my gratitude.  I always do
consult her on all important matters.  Till then I hope you will remain
in this house.  I am too great an invalid to talk much to you, but my
son will do his best to make amends for my deficiencies."

On this Master Richard went up and whispered something in his father's
ear.

"Will one or two do?"  I heard the brigadier ask.

"No, no, father, do it handsomely.  To be sure, he ran no risk, but it
was the way he did it; and I rather think he looks for some
remuneration."

On this the brigadier shuffled off his chair, and opening his
writing-desk, took out a bank note.

"Here, my friend," he said to old Dick, "I should like to pay you for
the loss of time, and the expense you have been put to, for this
youngster, so accept these few pounds.  I hope to show my sense of what
you have done, more heartily by-and-by."

I saw old Dick's eyes sparkle.  He had probably expected a sovereign at
the outside.

"Jack," he whispered to me, as we left the room, "you are in luck; for,
if he pays me five pounds for just picking that young shrimp out of the
water, he will certainly do a good deal more for you who saved his
life."

Master Richard soon overtook us, and then insisted on showing us over
the house--into the drawing-room, and dining-room, and
breakfast-parlour, and into several of the bedrooms, then down into the
servants' hall.  I had never been in such a fine house in my life
before.  And then he took us out into the garden, and walked us all
round, showing us the fruit-trees in blossom, and the beautiful flowers.

"My mamma will be home soon," he observed, "and my two sisters.  I want
her to see the brigadier first, because, you see, although it was a very
fine thing in you to pick me out of the water, I had no business to
tumble into it, or, indeed, to be in a boat at all.  The brigadier did
not see that, but she will.  She keeps us all precious strict, I can
tell you.  I have several brothers--the eldest is in the army, and two
are away at school.  I have not quite settled what I am going to be.  I
should not object to go into the navy, but then I should like to be made
an admiral or a post-captain at once.  I have no particular taste for
the army, and as for the law, or several other things, I would as soon
dig potatoes, or go shrimping; and thus, you see, the navy is the only
profession likely to suit me, or I am likely to suit."

Old Dick cocked his eye, as he heard young master's remarks.

"I rather think he must be changed a bit before he is suited to the
navy, however much he may think the navy will suit him; and there I have
an idea he will be pretty considerably mistaken," he whispered to me.

The young gentleman had evidently caught the habit of a pompous style of
speaking from Mrs. Brigadier, as I afterwards discovered.  It sounded
somewhat ridiculous, especially from the mouth of so small a chap.  I
had reason to suspect that he now and then, too, made curious mistakes;
though of course, not very well able to detect them myself.

At last an open carriage drove up to the door, with a curly-wigged
coachman on the box, and two dark-skinned servants standing behind,
dressed like the one who had opened the door.  Inside was a very tall
lady, sitting bolt upright, with two considerably smaller young ladies
opposite to her.  Young master told old Dick and me not to make any
noise, lest she should see us, as we were watching their arrival through
the shrubbery.  She got out with a dignified air, resting on one of the
black servants, and strode into the house.  The two young ladies
followed demurely in her wake.  She was exactly what I should have
expected the brigadier to be, only she wore petticoats, and a bonnet
instead of a cocked hat.  In a short time the servant appeared, and
summoned young master into the house.  He quickly appeared, and beckoned
us from a window to come in.  I did not see the meeting of the mother
and son, but I know when I entered she stretched out her arms, and gave
me a kiss on the brow.

"You have rendered me an essential service, young lad," she exclaimed,
in a voice well calculated to hail the maintop in a gale at sea, or to
shout "Advance!" at the head of a regiment in action.  "I wish to show
my gratitude, but how can I do so?"

"And you--" and she looked towards old Dick, who drew back; and I really
heard him say--

"Oh, don't!"

He thought she was going to salute him as she had me.

"You took them into your boat; you preserved them from catching cold: I
am grateful--very grateful!" and I saw her fumble in the deep recesses
of a side-pocket.

"My dear," whispered the brigadier, "I have already bestowed a pecuniary
recompense."

"You have!" she said turning round sharply, "without consulting me?"

This was said in an intended low voice, but I heard it.

"Well," she said, "money cannot repay you for the service you have
performed.  But you have found your way to this house.  Come again
to-morrow, and by that time I will have considered how I can best show
my gratitude."

"Thank you, marm!" answered old Dick, evidently very glad to get away.
"Shall I take Jack with me? he lives over on this side, and I can drop
him at his home as I go back to Gosport."

"If you so think fit, my friend," answered Mrs. Brigadier; "and if the
boy--by-the-by, what is your name?" she asked.

"Jack Junker," I replied; and I told her that my father was a sergeant.

"Jack Junker?  Yes, if you wish to go, Jack," she answered.  "I also
then shall have time to consider how I can best express my gratitude.
Farewell?"

She put out her hand, and shook old Dick's; but I thought, as she spoke
to me, her manner was considerably colder than it had been at first.
Old Dick and I left the room, and the door was closed behind us.

"I doubt her," whispered old Dick to me.  "I am glad the old gentleman,
however, gave me the five pounds.  It was handsome in him.  But Jack, my
boy, I suspect you will have to rest satisfied with having saved the
life of a fellow-creature; though, as you were the means of my gaining
this, I think I must hand over half to you, as your share."

To this, of course, I would not consent; and somewhat disappointed,
perhaps, I accompanied my old friend through the hall, having the honour
of being salaamed to most profoundly by the dark-skinned domestics.  We
walked slowly, and had not got very far, when I heard footsteps coming
behind us.  Turning round, I saw Master Richard running with all his
might.

"Here, Jack?" he said, "the Brigadier gave me this, and told me to hand
it over to you.  My mother was out of the room at the time, so do not
say anything about it to her.  She will show you her gratitude in some
other way.  I do not mean to say it is as much as I should like to have
offered you; but here, be quick I put it into your pocket, or we may be
seen from the house."

"Don't be a fool, Jack!" said old Dick, seeing I hesitated.  "It's
justly yours, boy, and let them settle the matter as they think best."

"Good-bye, Jack!" said young master, shaking me by the hand.
"Good-bye!" he added, taking old Dick's rough paw.  "We are a curious
set; but I say, do not refuse anything you can get.  If you want any
interest exerted, then boldly ask my mother.  She will do that in a way
which overcomes all difficulties.  If she wanted to make me Archbishop
of Canterbury, she would work away till she had done it, if she happened
to live long enough."

Old Dick dropped me at my home.  There was a tremendous noise going on,
created by my stepmother's children.  She was crying out and imploring
them to be quiet, and they were squabbling and crying and abusing each
other.  The big ones had appropriated the little ones' toys, or other
property, and all the poor woman could do they would not restore the
articles, while the young ones were crying to get them back, every now
and then making a rush at their bigger brothers and sisters, and getting
a box on the ear in return.  My appearance rather increased than quelled
the commotion.  Tommy, the biggest, asked me in a threatening way where
I had been, and of course I was not going to answer him; so he doubled
his fist, and, had I not stood on my guard, he would certainly have hit
me, but he thought better of it.  Just at that moment my father returned
off duty, full of my performances, of which old Dick had told him all
particulars.  He was very indignant with Tom.

"Is this the way, you young ruffian,