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“It’s all the same to me, sir,” I replied; “I shall be just as happy in the one as in the other service;” and so I considered the matter settled.

When the day of parting came, I was as merry and full of fun as ever, though I own there was a strange sensation about the heart which bothered me; however, I was not going to show what I felt–not I.

I slyly pinched my sisters when we were exchanging parting kisses, till they were compelled to shriek out and box my ears–an operation to which I was well accustomed–and I made my brothers roar with the sturdy grip I gave their fingers when we shook hands; and so, instead of tears, there were shouts of laughter and screeches and screams, creating a regular hullabuloo which put all sentimental grief to flight. “No, no, Jack, I will have none of your tricks,” cried Aunt Martha, when I approached with a demure look to bid her farewell, so I took her hand and pressed it to my lips with all the mock courtesy of a Sir Charles Grandison. My mother! I had no heart to do otherwise than to throw my arms round her neck and receive the fond embrace she bestowed upon me, and if a tear did come into my eye, it was then. But there was another person to whom I had to say good-bye, and that was dear little Grace Goldie, my father’s ward, a fair, blue-eyed girl, three or four years younger than myself. I did not play her any trick, but kissed her smooth young brow, and promised that I would bring her back no end of pearls and ivory, and treasures of all sorts, from across the seas. She smiled sweetly through her tears. “Thank you, Jack, thank you! I shall so long to see you back,” she whispered; and I had to bolt, or I believe that I should have began to pipe my eye in a way I had no fancy for. My father’s voice summoned me. “Now, Jack,” he said, “as you have chosen your bed, you must lie on it. But remember–after a year’s trial–if you change your mind, let me know.”

“No fear of that, sir,” I answered.

“We shall see, Jack,” he replied. He wrung my hand, and gave me his blessing. “I have directed Mr Junk to provide your outfit, and you will find it all right.” Who Mr Junk was I had no conception; but as my father said it was all right, I troubled my head no more about the matter.

My father’s old clerk, Simon Munch, was waiting for me at the door, and hurried me off to catch the Newcastle coach. On our arrival there he took me to the office of Junk, Tarbox and Company, shipbrokers.

“Here is the young gentleman, Mr Junk,” he said, addressing a one-eyed, burly, broad-shouldered personage, with a rubicund countenance, in a semi-nautical costume. “You know what to do with him, and so I leave him in your hands. Good-bye, Jack, I hope you may like it.”

“No fear of that, Mr Munch,” I answered; “and tell them at home that you left me as jolly and happy as ever.”

“So, Master Brooke, you want to go to sea?” said Mr Junk, squirting a stream of tobacco-juice across his office, and eyeing me with his sole bloodshot blinker; “and you expect to like it?”

“Of course I do; I expect to be happy wherever I am,” I answered in a confident tone.

“We shall see,” he replied. “I have sent your chest aboard of the Naiad. Captain Grimes will be here anon, and I’ll hand you over to him.”

The person he spoke of just then made his appearance. I did not particularly like my future commander’s outside. He was a tall, gaunt man, with a long weather-beaten visage and huge black or rather grizzled whiskers; and his voice, when he spoke, was gruff and harsh in the extreme. I need not further describe him; only I will observe that he looked considerably cleaner then than he usually did, as I afterwards found on board the brig. He took but little notice of me beyond a slight nod, as he was busy with the ship’s papers. Having pocketed them, he grasped me by the hand with a “Come along, my lad; I am to make a seaman on ye.” He spoke in a broad Northumbrian accent, and in a harsh guttural tone. I was not prepossessed in his favour, but I determined to show no signs of unwillingness to accompany him.