s of peace, of making any
great amount of headway up the ratlins of promotion. "So," said he, "if
Ned chooses to go to sea, he will have to enter the merchant service,
where good seamen are still, and always will be, required."

And this Ned did under the most advantageous circumstances, as
"midshipman-apprentice" on board an Australian clipper belonging to the
"Bruce" line, in which employ he was duly serving his time--very
creditably, indeed, to himself and to the officers who had the training
of him, if the report of the skipper, Captain Blyth, was to be believed.
And he was now, on this particular morning, leaving home once more,
after a month's leave, to join a brand-new steel-built clipper called
the _Flying Cloud_, the latest addition to the "Bruce" fleet, of which
ship Captain Blyth had been given the command.

As the lad arrived opposite King Street, the point where he would have
to turn off and leave the esplanade and the "front," as the inhabitants
term it, he paused a moment, looked longingly to right and left of him
at the long terraces of neat houses facing the sea, at the "Nothe" on
the opposite side of the harbour, at the sands, the bay, and the long
stretch of bold coast to the northward and eastward, and sighed
regretfully at the thought that he was about to leave the place once
more for so long a time. He was enthusiastically attached to his
profession--as every lad must be if he would make his way in the world--
but he was also attached to the place of his birth, and infinitely more
was he attached to his father and sister; and though he was too manly to
express sorrow at his departure, the feeling was there and would not be
altogether ignored. It was, therefore, with but an indifferently
successful assumption of cheerfulness that he exclaimed:

"Well, good-bye, old town! Who knows how many weary leagues I shall
have to travel, and through what hardships and perils I may have to
pass, before I tread your streets again!"

And, linking his arms in those of his father and sister, he crossed the
road and passed down the street to the railway-station.

Poor Ned! when he spoke so lightly he little knew that the words had so
prophetic a meaning.

In due course he arrived in London, and, chartering a cab, made the best
of his way to his new ship, which was taking in cargo in the London
Docks. On arriving alongside his first act was naturally to give a
scrutinising look at the craft and to mentally