Our father, with a
hand on his shoulder, could not help exclaiming, "Well, Alfred, you are
a jolly midshipman, my boy." And then all the servants had collected in
the hall to have a look at him, and they were none of them chary of
their expressions of admiration.

It was some days after this before all the multifarious contents of the
chest were ready, and then came the parting day. That was a very sad
one to our mother and elder sisters. I did not fully realise the fact
that we were to be parted till he had actually gone, so my sorrow did
not begin till I found his place empty, and had to go about by myself
without his genial companionship. Our father took him down to
Portsmouth, where he was to join his ship, the _Aurora_ frigate,
destined for the East India station, and our second brother Herbert
accompanied him. Herbert was delicate, and required a change of scene
and air. I longed to have gone too, but our father could not take both
of us. My great desire was to see a large ship, a real man-of-war. I
knew very well what a vessel was like, for I had seen numbers in the
Thames, and one of Alfred's great pleasures was to take me with him to
Greenwich Hospital, and to sit down on the benches and to watch the
vessels sailing up and down the river, while we talked with the old
pensioners, who were always ready to spin some of their longest yarns
for our edification, though older people who went down there for the
purpose found no little difficulty in getting anything out of them.
This was not surprising. The old sailors found in us attentive and
undoubting listeners. We never thought of even questioning them to let
them suspect that we had not the most perfect reliance on what they
said, which older people were apt to do, I observed, for the purpose of
gaining more information from them. The old tars were either offended,
from suspecting that their words were doubted, or fancied that their
interrogators had some sinister motives in putting such questions, and,
from an early habit of suspicion in all such instances, would shut up
their mouths, and seem to have forgotten all about their early lives.

In the way I have mentioned, both Alfred and I gained a great deal of
information about the sea and life in the navy, so that when he went
afloat he was not nearly as ignorant as are many youngsters. In one
respect, however, he had gained, unfortunately, no good from his
intercourse with the old sailors. He had