amazingly.

"Now if I can't go on board a man of war, and wear a cockade and a dirk
by my side, I should like to take a voyage in a ship like that. What a
magnificent craft! What proud fellows the captain and officers must be
to belong to that ship. I wonder whether the captain would like me as a
midshipman? The crew--I can fancy how they sit on the forecastle and
sing `Rule Britannia,' `Poor Tom Bowling,' `One night it blew a
hurricane.' Happy chaps! I should like to belong to her. I think I'll
go on board and ask the captain to take me.

"Mr Butterfield evidently intends that I should go into his
counting-house. Dreadful work to have to set on a high stool, to dot
and carry one, and to scribble away all day. I could not stand it. It
would kill me. It was bad enough to have to go to school, and then we
had a good many play-hours; but in these stuffy, musty, dark offices, I
have heard that they have only half-an-hour for dinner, and work away
till ten o'clock at night. That sort of life would never suit me.

"Yes, I'll go and see the captain, and I'll tell him that I was intended
for the navy, that I should have become an admiral some day, and that
will make him treat me with consideration."

Such were my cogitations as I stood, with my hands in my pockets, gazing
at the "Emu." When it came to the point I felt somewhat nervous about
going to speak to the captain. Perhaps he would not treat me with the
respect I should desire. He might not have a vacant berth, and I could
scarcely expect a stranger to make a place for me. At last, after
walking backwards and forwards very often, I ascended a plank which led
me to the gangway in the after part of the ship, and stepped on board.

For some time, all the men being occupied in hoisting in cargo, no one
took notice of me. I was thinking that I must go and speak to the
captain if I were to speak to him at all, when one of the men coming aft
asked me what I wanted.

"I wish to see the captain of this ship," I said.

"He is not on board, and is not likely to be until she sails," he
replied. "Do you bring any message for him? If you do, you had better
see the second mate."

"No thank you," I replied; "I want to see the captain," in as important
a tone as I could command.

"Well, then, you may find the captain at the ship-broker's in Dale
Street."

This threw me out, for I knew that the second mate would not have power
to receive me on board, and I di