amen, who would let me go up the rigging and mount
the masts to the dog-vane, the height of my climbing ambition, while
telling me the names of the different ropes and spars and instructing me
in all the mysteries of shipping life, in which I took the deepest
interest.

I was a born sailor, if anything.

There is no use in my denying the fact I must have inherited it with my
father's blood!

Once, Dr Hellyer spying about after me, on account of my not having
turned up either at dinner or tea--a most unusual circumstance--found me
messing with the hands in the fo'c's'le of a coal brig.

I recollect he pushed me along back to the school the whole way, holding
me at arm's length by the scruff of the neck; and, besides the
infliction of a round dozen of "pandies" and an imposition of five
hundred lines of Virgil's Aeneid to learn by heart, threatened me with
all sorts of pains and penalties should he ever catch me going down to
the quay again.

But, all his exhortations were of no avail! Go to the harbour amongst
the vessels I would, whenever I could get an opportunity of sneaking
away unnoticed; and, the more I saw of ships and sailors, the more
firmly I made up my mind to go to sea as soon as I saw a chance of
getting afloat, in spite of the very different arrangements Uncle George
had made for my future walk in life--arrangements that were recalled to
my mind every quarter in the letters my relation periodically wrote to
me after the receipt of the Doctor's terminal reports on my character
and educational progress. These latter were generally of a damaging
nature, letting me in for a lecture on my bad behaviour, coupled with
the prognostication, which I am sure really came from Aunt Matilda
through this side wind, that unless I mended my ways speedily I should
never be promoted to that situation of clerk in uncle's office which was
being held open for me as soon as I was old enough, and the thought of
which--with the enthralling spell of the ocean upon me--I hated!

To tell the strict truth, these quarterly reports of Dr Hellyer in
respect of my conduct were not wholly undeserved; for, with the
exception of displaying a marked partiality for mathematics, which,
fortunately for my subsequent knowledge of navigation, Mr Smallpage
kindly fostered and encouraged to the best of his ability, my studies
were terribly irksome to me, and my lessons being consequently
neglected, led to my having impositions without number