Part 5 (1/2)

At night he slept under haystacks or hedges, or in empty barns, and thus in time he reached Portsmouth, sore-footed, weary, and hungry, for during the last day his wallet had been empty.

Wandering down the High Street, he pa.s.sed through a large gateway, and out on a common, from whence he caught sight of the blue sea, and several huge s.h.i.+ps floating on it, but they were too far out to reach, and he had no money to pay for a boat; and he would have gained nothing had he reached them, for a poor ragged boy like him would not have been received on board. So he went back the way he had come. He asked several people if they could tell him how he could get on board s.h.i.+p, but they must have thought that he was silly, for they smiled and pa.s.sed on.

He had begun to think that he should never obtain his wishes, when close to the Southsea Gate he saw an old apple-woman sitting at her stall.

She brought his mother to mind. She looked kind, too, so he asked her.

Something in his manner touched Old Moll's heart. She asked him several questions, and then said, ”Sure, yes; there's what they call a training-s.h.i.+p for boys--the old ---, off the Dockyard, at Portsea.

They, maybe, will take you. Here's sixpence to get aboard; and here-- you look hungry, lad--is some gingerbread and apples--they'll do you good; and now G.o.d speed you! Go straight on--you can't miss the way, and come and tell me some day how you've fared.”

Ned went on through narrow lanes and dirty streets, till he came near the sh.o.r.e of the harbour, which was crowded with vessels of all sizes.

”If one won't have me, surely another will,” he said to himself, as he gazed with wonder at some of the line-of-battle s.h.i.+ps. ”They must want a precious number of people to fill those great things.”

He now began to inquire which was the old ---, where boys were received.

He was told that he couldn't see her from there--that she was higher up the harbour; but none of the boatmen he spoke to seemed disposed to take him on board. In vain he promised his sixpence. He had gone out to the end of one of the slips from the Common Hard, when two seamen and a sailor lad came down, carrying baskets, evidently full of provisions, and directed one of the boatmen who had just refused him to take them on board the old ---. As they were stepping into the wherry, the boatman beckoned to Ned, and told him that he could now go. He took his seat next to the lad, who, in spite of his own clean white trousers, and blue s.h.i.+rt with worked collar, and fresh straw hat, seemed in no way to despise his ragged dress. In a kind tone he asked Ned why he was going on board. Ned told him.

”Hope you'll succeed, mate,” he observed. ”A year ago, I was like you-- only paler and thinner, and maybe fewer clothes to my back--and trembled when I went aloft; and now there are not many aboard can reach the main-truck from the deck before me, or lay out smarter on a yard.”

The tide was against them, so that Ned had time to tell his new acquaintances a good deal of his history before they reached the s.h.i.+p.

They all seemed to take an interest in him, especially the lad--a fine, strong ruddy-faced young fellow of sixteen.

”Well, just do you ask for Bill Hudson--that's me--after you've seen the first lieutenant and the doctor; and then I'll tell you what to do,”

said the latter. ”You might lose yourself, do ye see, otherwise, about there.”

When they arrived alongside the huge s.h.i.+p, and Ned proffered his sixpence, the men wouldn't let him pay it, but helped him up the side through the entrance port, when he found himself, for the first time, on the main-deck of a man-of-war. While Bill Hudson went to find the proper person to take him to the officers for examination, he was lost in wonder, looking at the huge guns, with their polished gear, the countless number, it seemed, of boys and men moving about--all so cleanly and neatly dressed--and the spotless decks, white as a wooden platter.

At length he was summoned. He trembled with agitation, for he felt so dirty, and poor, and miserable, that he thought the officers, when they saw him, would quickly turn him out of the s.h.i.+p again. The first lieutenant, however, important as he looked, seemed pleased with his appearance and manner; the surgeon p.r.o.nounced him a healthy, able-bodied lad, fit for the service; but he had brought no certificates of parentage or age. Had he his parents' permission to come to sea? he was asked. They were both dead: he had no friends; but he produced a tin case which had been his father's. The contents showed that the owner had been a petty officer in the navy, and had borne an excellent character. But another question was put; could he read and write? (No boys could be received at that time unless they possessed those accomplishments.) Poor Ned had to confess that he was ignorant of both arts.

He was finally rejected. There was no help for it; though, as his father's certificate-case was returned to him, the officers expressed a hope that he might be some day accepted, if he could learn.

He went forward, much dejected, to find Bill Hudson; for this was but small consolation to him. How could he learn to read and write, when all his strength would be required to obtain food for his subsistence?

So he thought.

Bill heard his account of what had happened.

”If you had said that you couldn't read and write, I could have told you what would happen. But, don't be cast down, Ned. Little more than three years ago, I couldn't read nor write, and hadn't shoes to my feet, and scarce a rag on my back. I was a poor outcast boy, without father or mother--no shelter for my head, and often no food to eat. I picked up a living as I could, holding horses, running errands, when anybody would trust me. I didn't steal, but I was often and often very near doing so, as I pa.s.sed the butchers', and fruiterers', and bakers'

shops--just to fill my empty stomach. It wasn't so much because I wouldn't do it, as because I knew that they kept a sharp look-out, and I should have been caught. At last I thought I would try it on; and I didn't care if I was sent to prison, for I should have been fed, at all events: but that very day a gentleman pa.s.sing, saw me watching a stall, the owner of which had just left it, as if I was going to take whatever I could grab; and so I was. And he asked me if I was hungry; and he gave me a roll from his pocket, and then he asked me where I lived, and I said 'Nowhere;' and then he told me that if I would follow him he would show me where I could get food and shelter, and, might be, clothing and instruction, and means, too, of gaining my livelihood.

Though I didn't much credit him, I went; and he took me to the Field Lane Ragged School, as it is called; and there I found all he told me, and more. I soon showed them that I didn't want to eat the bread of idleness, and they got me employment in the day, and in the evening I used to go regularly to the school, and sleep in the Refuge, till I earned enough, by working four days, to go to the day-school for two days; and I soon learned to read and write; and more than that, Ned, I learned what made me a Christian, which I wasn't before I went there.

For, I tell you, Ned, I was a heathen; I knew no more about G.o.d and his love for man than a block of stone; and I thought that he hated poor people, and sent them all to h.e.l.l, and that there was no use being good.

I did not know that it was sin brought the misery I saw around me into the world, and that G.o.d hates sin, but loves sinners; for if he doesn't, he'd never have sent his only Son into the world to save them. At last I was asked what trade I would be, and I said, 'A sailor;' for I had been reading about the sea, and thought I should like to live on it. So they sent me down here, and I do like it, Ned, right well. And now I've told you all this, because I want to ask you if you'd like to go to Field Lane. I tell you it is a blessed place; and a blessed moment it was to me when I entered it. You'd learn to read and write, and be looked after, and learn to gain your daily bread, and be told about G.o.d and Jesus Christ, and how to be happy; and if you don't know about them, you can't be happy, that I tell you.”

Ned had been much surprised with all he had seen on board s.h.i.+p, but he was more surprised at what Bill told him, though in a different way. He said, certainly that he should like to go there, but how could he? Bill replied that ”where there's a will there's a way.” Many of his s.h.i.+pmates had heard Ned's history, and were interested in him; and he would speak to the first lieutenant and to some of the officers, who were kind, Christian men, and see what could be done.

Bill Hudson did do his best, and very effectual that was. He had acted as officer's servant, and saved up some money; and he went round the s.h.i.+p and told Ned's story; and all who heard it subscribed--some more and some less; and the officers, when they heard his proposal, subscribed very liberally. Ned was invited down to Bill's mess, and never had he eaten so hearty a dinner.

”No wonder the sailors on board here grow stout and strong, if they have so good a dinner as this every day,” he observed.