In the year of our Lord 18—, I was delighted one morning by receiving a letter from my father, who was captain and owner of the brig Petrel, telling me that he had arrived safely at Bristol with a valuable cargo, and that both he and my brother Willie, who was second mate of the Petrel, were well. The letter went on to say that my father had decided on taking me to sea with him, and had written to my schoolmaster, the Rev. Stephen Poynter of Clifton, to announce his intention. The letter also said that in two days’ time Willie would come to take me away from school, and that I was to have everything ready for starting when he came. According to the custom of the school, I had received my letter in the ten minutes which were given to us for a run in the playground before commencing our work after breakfast, and, as may be imagined, I lost no time in announcing its contents to my school-fellows, considering myself a very fine and important fellow to have finished my school days. The bell stopped short a description of the Petrel in which I was indulging, and we all had to hurry in and take our places at prayers, and when they were finished, to commence our ordinary tasks. I took my place at my desk, and opened my books. I must own, however, I did not think much of what they contained, and, under their cover, I tried to read over again my father’s letter which had announced the coming change in my life. I could not help thinking that it was very wrong for the head-master to keep such an important personage, as I had now in my own estimation become, sitting on a hard bench at a black desk to con over rules of arithmetic, and I kept looking at the door of the class-room to see if old Abe the porter would not come to summon me to the head-master’s presence.

Indeed, my inattention became so marked that twice the usher of the room said, “Baldwin, if you don’t go on with your work I shall have to punish you.” He was just on the point of leaving his seat to come over to me, when at last the door opened, and old Abe appeared, calling out, “Master Baldwin, wanted in the head-master’s study.” Usually, such a summons was the reverse of pleasant, for it meant, as a rule, that the boy who was called out had to answer for some mischief, and he was loath to answer the call. I, however, having a free conscience, jumped up at once; and the usher, who did not know of my approaching departure, said, “There, Baldwin, you’re wanted by the head-master. I suppose you have been up to some mischief, and that anticipation of your punishment has caused you to be inattentive.”

I smiled to those of my comrades to whom I had shown my letter, and went past the usher with a sort of swaggering show of independence; and he very rightly made me return to my seat and leave the room properly. As soon as I left, old Abe led the way to the double doors which separated Mr. Poynter’s private residence from the schoolrooms, and of which only he and the masters had the keys, and opened them, saying with a grin as he did so,—

“He hasn’t chosen the cane yet; what is it you have been up to?”

“Nothing, Abe. I’m going to leave.”

“Going to leave are you, and the holidays a month off yet! What is it for?”

I somewhat resented old Abe’s familiarity, with whom the boys were on the best of terms, and said in as dignified manner as I could, “I’m going to sea.”

“Going to sea, is it? Well, you’ll wish yourself back here before long. Going to sea! Salt beef and weevilly biscuit won’t suit as well as what you get to eat here.”

“I shan’t have salt beef and weevilly biscuit; I’m going in my father’s ship the Petrel.”

“Well, I never heard of a ship yet where there wasn’t salt beef. But now the master mustn’t be kept waiting; just you hurry on to his study.”

I went along a passage on which the doors opened, and crossing the hall, knocked at Mr. Poynter’s study door. As soon as I had knocked I heard Mr. Poynter say, “Come in;” and, opening the door, I found him sitting in his arm-chair, with my father’s letter in his hand. He motioned to me to sit down in a chair opposite to him, and said,—

“Frank, my boy, you know why I have sent for you, as your father tells me he has written to you that you are to leave us in a couple of days. Now, this will be a great change in your life; and although I think that most boys should stop at school till they are at least eighteen, you are now old enough to commence the life of a sailor. You are sixteen, are you not?”

“Yes, sir; I was sixteen two months ago.”

“I have little to say about the temptations to which you will be exposed, for as you will be under your father’s own eye, you will be shielded from many which usually assail the young; but remember always that, even if you are tempted to do what is wrong by the thought that your earthly father will know nothing about it, your heavenly Father’s eye is all-seeing, and that no thought or deed can escape him. For the five years you have been here you have given me satisfaction; but still, I have seen symptoms of self-will, and an inclination not always to obey with readiness. Remember that in a sailor instant and prompt obedience

is absolutely necessary, as you will soon learn; and he who cannot obey will never be fit to command. As to your studies, your father will doubtless look after your navigation; and I will write to him and tell him what other subjects will, in my opinion, best repay your continued attention. Now I do not suppose you can pay much attention to your work, so you may tell Mr. Stone that as you are going to leave us so soon, I have excused you from further attendance in the school-room, and you may gather all your things together, in readiness for packing up.”

“Thank you, sir,” I said; and then, nerved to boldness by the kindness of Mr. Poynter’s manner, I begged that he would grant my comrades a holiday.

“That’s a big request, Baldwin. You must remember that they are not all going to sea, and have to fit themselves by study for their future callings; besides, in three weeks the examination takes place, and they want every moment to prepare themselves, so that they may do credit to the school before the examiners.”

“Yes, sir; but if I leave in two days I shall not be able to play in the cricket-match between the first eleven and the next fifteen, while if you gave us a holiday to-morrow we could play then.”

“That is, no doubt, a most important matter in your mind, but it is not so important to me. However, I will think about it. Now I have lots to do, so you must run away.”

I left the study rather slowly, and was almost about to urge my request again, when Mr. Poynter said, “Remember obedience;” and I at once saw that the ultimate granting of the holiday would depend on my being promptly obedient, and left without saying another word.

Old Abe was by the double doors to let me back into the school, and I said,—

“All right, old Abe; there are no more lessons for me.”

He looked at me and smiled, and answered,—

“No more lessons! why, my poor lad, you will find that all this life is one long lesson. You will have many a one to learn which will not be so easy as the tasks which they set you here. Now Mr. Stone won’t want you in the schoolroom, I’ll warrant; so if you go and tell him what the head has said, and then come back to me, I’ll just help you to get your box up, ready to pack your clothes and things in.”

I thought this was very good of old Abe, and did not think that all the boxes had to be got from the cellar, where they were kept by old Abe and his assistants. I went into the classroom, where I went up to Mr. Stone and said,—

“Please, sir, the head-master has told me I need do no more lessons, but that I may begin to get my things together, ready for going away.”

“Going away, are you! that is why you were so inattentive this morning, I suppose.”

“Yes, sir. My brother Willie is coming for me the day after to-morrow, and I am to go to sea with him and my father in the Petrel.”

“Very well, my lad; but you must not make a noise here, for there are boys who are not going to sea. So get away, and you can tell all about it when we come out of school at half-past twelve. Now don’t speak to any one, but go at once.”

I remembered “obedience,” and did as I was told. Leaving the room, I found old Abe waiting for me with the key of the cellar, and followed him down, and soon found my box, which with him I carried up into the dormitory which I shared with nine of my school-fellows. Here I found the matron and one of the maids busy getting my clothes ready for packing up.

When the matron, Mrs. Stevens, saw Abe and me carrying in my box, she said,—

“Now, Abe, don’t you know how particular Mr. Poynter is that none of the young gentlemen should carry their boxes about?”

“Why, ma’am,” he answered, “Master Baldwin’s going to sea, and he’ll have more hard work to do than help an old man to carry an empty box.”

“That will do, Abe. Mind, if I find you disobeying orders again, I shall tell Mr. Poynter.—Now, Master Baldwin, I do not think you can be any use here. I will leave out your best suit for you to go away in, and will have a place for your books. You had better go to the room and get all your belongings together in the way of bats and balls, and pack them in your play-box.”

Old Abe and I left the room at once, and he said to me,—

“Now that’s done. She can’t abear an old man getting a bit of help. But, Master Baldwin, there are your rabbits and pigeons. Now, there’s not a boy among them all who takes care of their pets like you do. I wonder what will become of them!”

I certainly was flattered by what old Abe said, for I believed my white Himalayan rabbits, with their black noses and ears, and my pair of tumbler pigeons, to be the best of all the pets which were kept by the boys in the school playground; and I also prided myself that the rabbit-hutch and dove-cot, which I had made with my own hands, were superior to the various receptacles of the pets of my schoolfellows. I therefore fell into the trap which he had set for me.

“Why, Abe, I don’t know. There’s Jones Major, he has some pigeons, and looks well after them; and Brown too, he has lost his two carriers; and Smith, he has been wanting to buy my rabbits this long time.”

“Surely, sir, a gentleman like you, a-leaving school and going to sea, and all, can’t be thinking of selling his rabbits. Sailors are fine generous fellows, and they always give away things. I mind one I saw not a fortnight agone as gave an old man a ten-shilling bit. But don’t you be after giving them lovely rabbits to that young Smith; he don’t know how to feed or look after them, and they’ll be dead in a week with him. And as for Master Brown, it’s my opinion he kept his carriers so dirty and half-starved, that when he let them out they made up their minds not to come back again. Now, sir, I could keep them nicely. I do love a good pigeon and a handsome rabbit; and I can warrant you that they’d be well taken care of.”

I had certainly had an idea of selling both pigeons and rabbits to pay some small schoolboy debts; but I felt my character as a generous sailor was at stake, and not to be outdone by the anonymous sailor who gave an old man a ten-shilling bit, I gave rabbits and pigeons to old Abe. He then asked me to come and look at my boots and shoes, and would soon have begged all from me if Mrs. Stevens had not arrived upon the scene and sent him about his work, grumbling sadly at being sent away from a young gentleman whom he always said “was the nicest lad he had ever set his eyes on.”

Mrs. Stevens told me I must learn not to be taken in; and when I said I had given my rabbits and pigeons to old Abe because he would look after them, she said, “Why, you must be foolish. Master Baldwin. He will sell them before you have left the place.”

By this time school-hours were over, and I was soon surrounded by all my class-fellows asking me for a description of the Petrel, and where she had been, and where she was going. As whenever my father had been at home I had passed my holidays with him, I was fully able to say what the good brig Petrel was like. I believe that I was so proud of her that if all I said had been true she would have been as big as Nelson’s flagship the Victory, and that in her my father and brother had gone through as many adventures as Anson in the Centurion, or Drake and the brave hearts who, first of Englishmen, sailed round the world in the famous Pelican.

But these stories were all repetitions, for I had been wont to tell marvellous stories of the Petrel, her captain and crew, whenever I returned to school after having spent my holidays with my father. Far more interest was excited by the announcement that I had been bold enough to ask for a holiday for the next day, and that the governor, as we called Mr. Poynter, had shown some inclination to grant it.

As soon as the excitement had somewhat abated, Smith, Brown, and Jones Major, and other rabbit and pigeon fanciers, came about me to find out if there was any chance of their becoming the fortunate possessors of my Himalayan rabbits and tumbler pigeons; and great was their disappointment at finding that I had given them to old Abe, who, it was at once said, would sell them to the highest bidder.

I had to promise to bring home an army of monkeys and a whole brigade of parrots before I could appease the reproaches of those who, like me, were fond of pets; and then I had to give to my special chums such little schoolboy treasures as they might value for keepsakes. In return many willing hands helped me to carry my books up to the dormitory to be packed up, and the bell rang for dinner whilst we were engaged about what we called helping (but which Mrs. Stevens called hindering) to pack my box.

After dinner I saw Mr. Poynter again, and from him obtained the promise of a holiday for the next day, the announcement of which was hailed with delight by the whole school; and great were the preparations for the cricket-match which was to take place.

I did not find as much pleasure as I had anticipated in being excused from school. It was very lonely work being about in the playground and fives-courts while they were untenanted, and, even with the prospect of having a stiff piece of construing to do, I would gladly have joined my class in their work. I was delighted when evening came, and with it the companionship of my fellows, to whom I might anew dilate on the Petrel and her crew. Indeed, long after we had gone to bed, my dormitory was the scene of acted feats of boarding pirates and other such-like deeds, until the noise made by one party, who with their bolsters represented the British sailors driving the pirates from their last retreat, brought Mr. Poynter on the scene. Then pirates and sailors, friends and foes, scuttled into bed and pretended to be most virtuously asleep; but a threat from the head-master, that if he heard any more noise the promised holiday should be withheld, caused our riotous antics to be discontinued for the night, and our feigned slumbers soon became real ones.

Next morning dawned bright and sunny, and more pleasure was in store for us than I had anticipated; for my brother Willie arrived before the day commenced, and my father had told him to come to Clifton and see that I cleared out from school with all due Éclat. When Willie found that Mr. Poynter had given us a holiday, he begged and obtained leave to add some fruit, cakes, and tarts to our dinner, which we were allowed to have in the cricket-field instead of returning to the schoolhouse for it, as was usually the custom.

I was in the eleven, and their most trusted bowler, and to-day it seemed as if I was bound to surpass myself, for wicket after wicket of the fifteen fell before my attack; and when our innings came. I, though I went in sixth, carried my bat out for thirty-five runs. In the second innings of the fifteen I was even more successful than in their first, taking no less than ten wickets for thirty-eight runs. In the end the eleven were victorious by an innings and seventeen runs.

My brother Willie, who had left the school about four years before, was known to several of the older boys, and his stories of what he had actually seen on the coast of Africa, where my father traded, quite eclipsed in interest all that I had told the day before. His sailor dress, bronzed face, and, above all, the tattooing with which his arms were ornamented, were the subjects of admiration of all my schoolfellows, those who had been with him at school seeming to consider themselves as quite above those unfortunates who had joined the school since he had left.

Old Abe drew half a crown from him by saying that he was quite the finest young sailor whom he had ever seen. Indeed Willie, who was now nineteen, and fully five feet ten inches in height, was a picture of what the officer of a smart craft should be. His well-fitting blue clothes with brass anchor buttons suited his athletic figure admirably, while his dark curly hair, brown eyes, and open, smiling face were well calculated to win the affection of all who saw him.

I was delighted with the admiration he elicited, and though I was proud of my success that day in the cricket-field, I was still prouder of my handsome brother, and looked forward to the day when, on my return from some exciting voyage, I might, like him, have stirring tales of adventure to recite to my old chums. I little thought that before I again visited my old school I should pass through so many dangers and perils as fell to my lot.