Part 1 (1/2)
The Three Lieutenants.
by W.H.G. Kingston.
CHAPTER ONE.
LIEUTENANT JACK ROGERS AT HOME--HIS BROTHER TOM RESOLVES TO FOLLOW IN HIS WAKE--HIS OLD s.h.i.+PMATES DISCUSSED--LETTER FROM TERENCE ADAIR DESCRIPTIVE OF HIS FAMILY--ADMIRAL TRITON PLEADS TOM'S CAUSE--THE ADMIRAL'S ADVICE TO TOM--LEAVING HOME.
”Really, Jack, that uniform is excessively becoming. Do oblige us by standing up as if you were on the quarter-deck of your s.h.i.+p and hailing the main-top. I do not remember ever having seen a naval officer above the rank of a mids.h.i.+pman in uniform before. Do you, Lucy?”
”Only once, at a Twelfth-night party at Foxica, to which you did not go, when Lady Darlington persuaded Admiral Triton to rig himself out, as he called it, for our amus.e.m.e.nt, in a naval suit of the time of Benbow, belonging to her great-grandfather. I prefer Jack in his uniform, I own, and he looks infinitely better in it than he does in top-boots and a hunting-coat, when he is eclipsed by many of the young farmers who have not two ideas to string together.”
These remarks were made in the presence of Jack Rogers by his young and pretty sisters, Mary and Lucy, soon after his return home from China, on his promotion to the rank of Lieutenant, when one morning he entered the breakfast-room, dressed in a bran-new uniform, which, with inward satisfaction, he had put on at their request, that he might exhibit it to them. It set off to advantage his manly, well-knit figure, at which no one could look without seeing that he must possess ample strength of limb and muscle. An honest, kind heart beamed through a somewhat broad, very sun-burnt countenance. His features were good, though, and his head was well set on a wide pair of shoulders, which made him look shorter than he really was, not that he could boast of being a man of inches. Take him for all in all, Jack Rogers was a thoroughly good specimen of the British naval officer. Of course his sisters admired him--what sisters would not?--but their admiration was surpa.s.sed by that of his youngest brother, Tom, who was firmly of opinion that there never had been and never could be anybody like him; yet Tom was Jack in miniature, and the portrait of Jack, taken just before he went to sea, was frequently supposed to be that of Tom. At school (Tom went to Eagle House, which, though old Rowley had retired to enjoy a well-earned ”otium c.u.m dignitate” in his native c.u.mberland, still kept up its ancient character under an able master) his great delight was to talk of the sayings and doings of ”my brother Jack,” and to read extracts from the accounts of the latter, which from time to time came home. Tom's schoolfellows knew almost as much about Jack's adventures as those who, in subsequent years, read them in print, and they all agreed that he must be a first-rate chap.
”I should think so, indeed,” said Tom, in a tone of confidence. ”If you were just to see him once you'd say I am right, and my great wonder is, that the Lords of the Admiralty don't make him a post-captain right off at once. They couldn't help themselves if they knew him as well as I do.”
Thus admiring Jack, it was natural that Tom should have resolved to follow in his footsteps. His whole heart was set upon being a sailor, and going some day to sea with Jack. He did not talk much about his intentions; that was not his way, except, perhaps, to one or two very intimate friends; but he had confided his hopes and wishes to Admiral Triton, who had promised to forward them.
”You can't choose a better profession, and I'll see about it when the time comes,” answered the Admiral. ”Not that the service is what it was, but I never hold with those who swear that it's going to ruin, and I shall have no fear on that score as long as there are plenty of fine young fellows in it, like your brother Jack and his friends Murray and Adair and scores of others, and such as you'll turn out, Tom, I'm sure.
No, no. I've a notion, however, that we should have been much the better if those abominable, smoky tea-kettles of affairs introduced of late years had never been thought of, but one comfort is, that they never can be of the slightest possible use as men-of-war, though they may serve to tow s.h.i.+ps into action when forts are to be attacked and such-like work. Never do you get appointed to one if you can help it, Tom. They'll spoil our sailors as sailors if they do nothing else.”
This was said before the _Nemesis_ in China, and other steamers had done good service, which even seamen of the old school could not disparage.
Of course Tom regarded steamers with the utmost contempt, and never spoke of them without quoting the remarks of Admiral Triton, who, however, in the course of time, learnt to modify his opinions.
Tom, who had come home for the holidays with secret hopes of not having to return to Eagle House, sat proudly smiling his a.s.sent to their sisters' remarks on Jack, stopping for awhile from the vigorous attack on a plate of ham and eggs, which he had before been making. Jack, who had taken a chair at the table, asked quietly,--”do you really wish to hear me hail the main-top?” Mary nodded.
Tom's eyes twinkled, his countenance beamed all over with delight.
Jack got up, planted his feet firmly on the floor, and put his hand to his mouth as if about to hail.
”I had better not,” he said, laughing, ”lest I frighten the household out of their propriety. They will think that some wild bull has got into the breakfast-room.”
”Oh, never mind that; we want to hear how you do speak on board s.h.i.+p,”
said Lucy; ”just a few words, you know.”
”As you like it,” said Jack, and then, putting his hand to his mouth, he shouted simply, ”Maintop there!”
The sound made his sisters jump from their chairs. Tom clapped his hands with delight, and laughed till the tears rolled down his cheeks.
In rushed the butler and footman and two housemaids, with dusters in their hands, to ascertain what was the matter. Sir John came hurrying in from the garden with a look of astonishment on his countenance, and her ladys.h.i.+p's own maid was sent down to know if anything had happened.
”I told you so,” said Jack to his sisters. ”I was only speaking as we do sometimes at sea,” he added, turning to the servants, the female portion of whom lingered to take an admiring look at their young master.
Sir John gazed with a father's pride at his manly son, and then looked at Tom, about whom he had the evening before received a letter from Admiral Triton, saying that if the boy still wished to go into the Navy, he should have great pleasure in getting him forthwith appointed to a s.h.i.+p.
”If the service turns him out as fine a fellow as his brother, I shall not regret should he choose it,” thought the baronet. ”I'll talk to him and Jack about the matter by-and-by, and ascertain the real bent of the boy's inclinations.” Had Tom known what was pa.s.sing in his father's mind he would speedily have decided the question.
The whole party were soon a.s.sembled at breakfast--that pleasantest and most sociable of meals in an English country-house. Besides the members of the family already introduced, there was Lady Rogers--fair, comely, gentle-mannered--and kind-hearted--Paul the eldest son, studying the law that he might take the better care of his paternal estates; and, lastly, Sidney, a captain in the Guards, at home on leave. Then there were several guests, county neighbours, who had come for a couple of nights, a brother officer of Sidney's and a school-fellow of Lucy's. Jack cast an appreciating glance over the breakfast-table, with its plates of attractive little rolls, its racks of thin, crisp toast, its small pats of b.u.t.ter, swimming amid ice in elegantly-designed bowls of crystal, its eggs under snow-white napkins, its covered dishes containing m.u.f.fins or sausages or other minute delicacies, its hissing urn and cream and milk jugs, and tea set at one end, and its coffee set at the other, presided over by two sweet-looking girls; and then he smilingly looked over his shoulder at the side-board, on which, among various comestibles, appeared a round of beef, another of brawn, a huge ham, and a venison-pasty.
Who that has been long a wanderer from home has not gone back in memory to such a scene as now greeted Jack's eyes, especially when hunger has been gnawing or provender coa.r.s.e? Jack often had, and though he had never grumbled at privations or hards.h.i.+ps, he was, notwithstanding, all the more ready to do ample justice to the viands spread out before him.