ch produced some of my subsequent adventures.

We were a large family. I had several brothers and sisters. I was the
third son, and I had two elder sisters. Alfred, my eldest brother, was
a fine joyous-spirited fellow. Some said he was too spirited, and
unwilling to submit to discipline. He was just cut out for a sailor,--
so everybody said, and so he thought himself, and to sea he had resolved
to go. Our father exerted all the interest he possessed to get him into
the navy, and succeeded. We thought it a very fine thing for him when
we heard that he really and truly was going to be a midshipman. It
appeared to us as if there was but one step between that and being an
admiral, or, at all events, a post-captain in command of a fine
line-of-battle ship. Neither our mother nor sisters had at first at all
wished that Alfred should go to sea; indeed, our father would, I
believe, have much rather seen him enter into the business of a
merchant; but as soon as the matter was settled, they all set to work
with the utmost zeal and energy to get his kit ready for sea. Many a
sigh I heard, and many a tear I saw dropped over the shirts, and
stockings, and pocket-handkerchiefs, as they were being marked, when he
was not near. Too often had they read of dreadful shipwrecks, of
pestiferous climates, of malignant fevers carrying off the young as well
as the old, the strong as well as the weak, not to feel anxious about
Alfred, and to dread that he might be among those gallant spirits who go
away out-flowing with health, and hope, and confidence, and yet are
destined never again to visit their native land, or to see the faces of
those who love them so much. Alfred was full of life and animation, and
very active in assisting in the preparations making for his departure.
Well do I remember the evening when his uniform came down. With what
hurried fingers we undid the parcel, and how eagerly I rushed up-stairs
with him to help him to put it on! What a fine fellow I thought he
looked; how proud I felt of him, as I walked round and round him,
admiring the gold lace and the white patches worn by midshipmen in those
days, and the dirk by his side, and the glossy belt, and the crown and
anchor on his buttons and in his cap, and more than all, when I felt
that he was really and truly an officer in the navy! Still more
delighted was I when I accompanied him down-stairs, and heard the
commendations of all the family on his appearance.