follow his
excellent advice.

As we reached the water-side, my uncle stopped, and putting one hand on
my shoulder and taking mine with the other, looked me kindly in the
face.

"Fare thee well, Terence, my boy," he said; "we may not again meet on
earth, but wherever you go, an old man's warmest affection follows you.
Be afraid of nothing but doing wrong. If your life is spared, you'll
rise in the profession you have chosen, second only in my opinion to
that of the army."

I stepped into the boat, and the men shoved off. My uncle stood
watching me as we descended the stream. Again and again he waved his
hand, and I returned his salute. He was still standing there when a
bend of the river shut him out from my sight. I was too much engaged
with my thoughts to listen to what the boatmen said, and I suspect they
thought me either too dull or too proud to talk to them. As we pulled
up on the larboard side, thinking that I was now somebody, I shouted to
some men I saw looking through the ports to come down and lift my chest
on board, though how that was to be done was more than I could tell. A
chorus of laughs was the reply.

Presently I heard a gruff voice say, "Send a whip down there, and have
that big lumber chest, or whatever it is, up on deck." My chest was
quickly hauled up, and as quickly transferred by the orders of the
lieutenant in charge of the watch below, before Mr Saunders' eyes had
fallen on it. I mounted the side in as dignified a way as I could,
saluting the flag on reaching the deck, as my uncle had told me to do.

I had recognised Tom Pim, who was ready to receive me. "You must go to
the first lieutenant,--he's in the gun-room,--and say, `Come aboard,
sir,' and then when you're dismissed make your way into the berth," he
said.

"But how am I to be after finding the gun-room; is it where the guns are
kept?" I asked.

Tom laughed at my simplicity. "No; it's where the gun-room officers,
the lieutenants and master, the doctor, and purser, and lieutenant of
marines, mess. They all mess together, as do the mates, and we the
midshipmen, the second master and master's assistant, the clerks and the
assistant-surgeon."

"And have you no ensign?" I asked.

"No; there are none in the marines, and so we have no soldiers in our
berth," he answered; "but let's come along, I'll show you the way, and
then you'll be in time for dinner." We descended to the gun-room door,
where Tom left me, bidding