FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83  
84   85   86   87   88   89   >>  
in son, Davie--David Campbell, sir," was again the reply. "Is there any man of that name on board?" inquired Sir Harry. "Let him be called aft." A stout lad soon made his appearance, and was immediately pressed in the old people's arms. This son was a truant, long absent from his home. At length, grown weary at delay, quitting their abode near Edinburgh, they had travelled south, inquiring at every port for their lost son, and only that morning had they arrived by waggon at Poole, believing that it was a port where men-of-war were to be found. A boatman, for the sake of a freight, had persuaded them to come off with him, pointing out the ship which was then coming out through the Needles. Sir Harry was so pleased with the perseverance and affection which the old couple had exhibited, that he took them on to Weymouth, when the story was told to the King. His Majesty had them presented to him, and he and Queen Charlotte paid them all sorts of attention, and at length, after they had spent some weeks with their son, dismissed them, highly gratified, to their home in the North. Queen Charlotte was as good a woman as ever lived, and, in her way, was as kind and affable as was the King. She had a quaint humour about her, too, which frequently exhibited itself, in spite of the somewhat painful formality of the usual court circle. As an example--Sir Harry had had a present of bottled green peas made to him the previous year, and, looking on them as a great rarity, he had kept them to be placed on the table before his royal guests. As he knew more about ploughing the ocean than ploughing the land, and affairs nautical than horticultural, it did not occur to him that fresh green peas were to be obtained on shore. The bottled green peas were therefore proudly produced on the first opportunity. "Your Majesty," said Sir Harry, as the Queen was served, "those green peas have been kept a whole year." The Queen made no reply till she had eaten a few, and sent several flying off from the prongs of her fork. Then, nodding with a smile, she quietly said, "So I did tink." To the end of his days, Sir Harry used to laugh over the story, adding, "Sure enough, they were very green; but as hard as swan-shot." But I undertook to narrate a circumstance which exhibited Sir Harry Burrard Neale's character in its true colours. I need not enter into an account of that painful event, the Mutiny of the British Fleet. It brok
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83  
84   85   86   87   88   89   >>  



Top keywords:

exhibited

 

Charlotte

 

ploughing

 
Majesty
 

length

 
bottled
 

painful

 

produced

 

opportunity

 

proudly


obtained

 

previous

 

rarity

 

present

 

circle

 
affairs
 

nautical

 

guests

 
horticultural
 

narrate


undertook

 

circumstance

 

Burrard

 

character

 

British

 

Mutiny

 

account

 
colours
 

adding

 

formality


flying
 

prongs

 
nodding
 

quietly

 

served

 

quitting

 
Edinburgh
 

travelled

 

absent

 

inquiring


waggon

 

believing

 

arrived

 

morning

 
truant
 

Campbell

 

inquired

 
immediately
 

pressed

 

people