ey will have good reason to
value their own quiet home as they ought.

I thought Liverpool a very fine city, with its large public buildings,
and its broad streets, and its churches, and its Sailors' Home, which I
visited, where sailors have a large smoking-hall, and dining-rooms, and
a lecture-room, and a chapel, and where some hundreds may each have a
little separate cabin to himself. I wish every port in the world, much
frequented by shipping, had a place of a similar character. Most of
all, I was struck with the docks, crowded with ships of great size, and,
indeed, craft of every description and nation; as also with its wide
quays and wharfs, and floating landing-stages, and steamers dashing in
and out, and running up and down the river in such a hurry, that they
looked as if they were conscious that they had to struggle for their
existence among the struggling human multitude of the place. We
inquired for the _Triton_.

"There she is, with the blue Peter flying at the fore! She sails
to-night, don't she, Tom?" said a waterman whom we addressed. "Do you
want a boat, gintlemen?"

My father said, "Yes;" and agreed with the man as to his fare.

We stepped into his boat, and away we pulled towards my future home--the
good ship _Triton_. I had never seen a ship before, it must be
remembered. I had looked at pictures of them, so I was acquainted with
their shape; but I had formed no adequate idea of the size of a large
ship; and as the boat lay alongside of the _Triton_, and I looked up and
saw one of the officers standing at the gangway to receive us, it
appeared something like scaling the walls of a castle to climb up to the
deck. What should I have thought had the _Triton_ been a hundred and
twenty gun-ship, instead of a merchantman of 500 tons, for such was her
size! However, I then thought her a magnificent ship; she was indeed a
very fine one for her size. Side ropes being rigged, we soon gained her
deck. The captain was still on shore, but my father at once made out
Silas Brand. He was a shortish, rather thick-set, fair man, with a
roundish face and a somewhat florid complexion. He had light hair, with
largish whiskers, and he shaved his chin in harbour. I had to look at
him frequently, and to talk to him more than once, before I discovered
that his countenance showed much firmness and decision, and that his
smile betokened more than a good-natured, easy disposition. My father
had a good deal of