respectable life at home."
"As a country squire!"
"Oh yes; country squire will do, and we might throw Parliament in, eh?Member for the county--how does that sound?"
Major Lyle laughed.
And Captain Fitzroy laughed.
Then they both rubbed their hands and looked pleased.
"I think," said Fitzroy, "we have it all cut and dry."
"There isn't a doubt of it."
"Well, then, we'll order the lads' dinner in--say in three hours' time,and you and I will meanwhile have a stroll."
In about three hours both Leonard and his friend Douglas Fitzroyreturned to the inn, as hungry as Highland hunters, and were glad to seethe table groaning with good things.
"We've had such a day of it, dad," said Leonard; "though we had no ideaof the distance when we started, but I've found some of the rarest fernsand mountain flora, and some of the rarest coleoptera in all creation.Haven't we, Doug?"
"Yes, Leon. Your sister will be delighted."
"Dear Eff!" said Leonard; "I wish she'd been with us."
It was a grand walking expedition the two young gentleman and theirfathers were on, and it is wonderful how Captain Fitzroy did swing alongwith that wooden leg of his. He was always in front, whether it wasgoing up hill or down dell. There really seems some advantage, afterall, in having a wooden leg, for once an angry adder struck the gallantcaptain on the "timber toe," as he called it; and once a bulldog flew athim, and though it rent some portion of his clothing, it could make noimpression to signify on that wooden leg, and finally received a kick onthe jaw that made it retire to its kennel in astonishment.
After they had dined Captain Fitzroy explained the travelling scheme tothe lads, and recommended them to think seriously about it after theyhad retired to their bedroom, and give their answer in the morning.
I do not think there is any occasion to say what that answer was whenthe morning came.
Book 2--CHAPTER TWO.
AT SEA IN THE "FAIRY QUEEN."
"Oh! who can tell save he whose heart hath tried, And danced in triumph o'er the waters wide, The exalting sense--the pulse's maddening play, That thrills the wanderer of that trackless way?"
Byron.
"The moon is up; it is a lovely eve; Long streams of light o'er dancing waves expand."
Idem.
Scene: The deck of the _Fairy Queen_. Douglas and Leonard walkingslowly up and down the quarter-deck arm-in-arm. Hardly a cloud in thesky, stars very bright, and a round moon rising in the east and gildingthe waters.
Three years have elapsed since the conversation related in the lastchapter took place--years that have not been thrown away, for ourheroes--by that title we ought now to know them--have been sensible andapt pupils in the world's great school.
It must be admitted that it was both a strange and an unusual thing fortwo fathers, to each make his only son an allowance, and tell him to goand enjoy himself in any way he pleased. After all, it was onlytreating boys as men, and this, in my opinion, ought to be done moreoften than it is.
They drew their first half-year's income in London, then went quietlyaway to their hotel to consider what they should do.
"A couple of hundred a year, Doug," said Leonard, "isn't a vastfortune."
"No," replied Douglas, "it isn't unspendable."
"That is what I was thinking. But you see, by making us this grant--andit is all they can afford, and very handsome of them--we are positivelyon parole, aren't we?"
"Yes, we are bound not to exceed. To do so would be most unkind andungentlemanly."
"Well, if we go on the continent it won't last long, will it?"
"No; besides, I don't hanker after the continent. My French is shockingbad, Leon, and I should be sure to quarrel with somebody, and get runthrough the body. No; the continent is out of the question."
"Yes; although a fellow could pick up some nice specimens there. Butlet us go farther afield. We can't go abroad far as passengers--supposewe go as sailors? We both have been to Norway in a ship, and we wenttogether to Archangel, so there isn't much about a ship we don't know.Let us, I say, offer our services as--"
"As what?"
"Why, as apprentices. We're not much too old."
"No."
"Well, is it agreed?"
"Yes, I'm ready for anything, Leon. I want to see the world at anyprice."
So the very next day off they had gone to see an old friend of CaptainFitzroy's who lived down Greenwich way, and who was a city merchant in abig way of business.
They explained their wishes and ambitions to him.
"Well," he replied, "come and dine with me to-morrow, and I'll introduceyou to one of the jolliest old salts that ever crossed the ocean. I'lldo no more than introduce you, mind that."
Nor did he.
But after dinner Captain Blunt, a thorough seaman every inch of him,with a face as rosy and round as the rising moon, began spinning yarns,or telling his experiences. He had ready listeners in Leonard andDouglas, and when the former opened out, as he phrased it, andintroduced and expatiated on the subject next his heart and the heart ofhis friend, it was Captain Blunt's turn to listen.
"Bother me, boys!" he exclaimed at last, pitching away the end of a bigcigar, "but I think you are good-hearted ones, through and through, andif I thought it was something more than a passing fancy I'd take youalong with me."
"Take us and try us. We want no wages till we can earn them, nor willwe live aft till we are fit to keep a watch. Our station on deck mustbe before the mast, our place below a seat before the galley fire, and abunk or hammock amidships. We want to learn to set a sail, to splice arope, to heave the lead, box the compass, turn the capstan, reef andsteer--in fact, all a sailor's duties."
"Bravo!" cried Captain Blunt, "I'm but a plain man, and a plainoutspoken sailor, but I'll have you; and if there isn't some life and goin you, blame me, but I'm no reader of character."
That is the way--an unusual one, I grant--in which our heroes joined themerchant service, and here--after three years all spent in CaptainBlunt's ship--here, I say, on this lovely night, we find them both ondeck, one keeping his watch, the other keeping him company, for they arehaving a talk about bygone times.
They have seen a bit of life even in that time, for the good ship _FairyQueen_ was seldom long out of active service.
They kept strictly to the terms of their engagement, and have been tillnow before the mast, refusing even to mess in the cabin, althoughinvited to do so by kindly old Captain Blunt.
Both Douglas Fitzroy and Leonard Lyle were, as mere children, fond ofthe sea. What British boy is not? A ship had always had a strangefascination for each of them. When much younger they had often beentaken by their parents to Glasgow, and they preferred a stroll among theshipping at the Broomielaw to even a saunter in the park itself.Beautiful in summer though the park might have been in those days--andthere was but one--it was in Leonard's eyes too artificial. The ladloved Nature, but he liked to meet her and to woo her in the woods andwilds.
At school in Edinburgh both boys were what are called inseparables.They just suited each other. It was not a case of extremes meet,however, for the tastes of both were identical. Although their booksand lessons had by no means been neglected, still, task duty over, andoff their minds for the day, they were free to follow the bent of theirown wills. More beautiful or more romantic scenery than that closearound Scotland's capital there is hardly to be found anywhere. Ourheroes knew every nook and corner of it, every hill and dell, everydingle, rock, and glen, and all the creatures that dwelt therein,whether clad in fur or feather. But for all that, they were as wellknown on the pier of Leith as "Mutchkin Jock," the giganticshore-porter, himself was. Never a ship worth the name of ship hadentered, while they were at school, that they did not visit, scan, andcriticise. They coolly invited themselves on board, too. Now thismight have been resented at times had they not been gentlemanly lads.Gentlemanly in address, I mean.
So, though they might often and oftenhave been found "yarning" with sailors forward, whose hearts they wellknew how to win, they were just as often invited down below to thecabin, and hobnobbed with the captain himself.
It would have pleased the surliest old ship captain who ever peeped overa binnacle edge, to have two such listeners as young Leon and Doug. Howtheir bright eyes had sparkled, to be sure, as some skipper newly orlately arrived from foreign lands sat telling them of all the wonders hehad seen! And how they had longed to sail away to summer seas, andbehold for themselves wonders on a larger scale than any they could meetwith among the mountains of their own country!
It was thus perhaps