oys and amusements. How carefully she
bound up a cut finger or bathed a bruised knee; or if we were trying to
manufacture any toy, how ready she was to show us the best way to do the
work; how warmly she admired it when finished, and how proudly she
showed it to father when he came in. I was accustomed from my earliest
days to the sight of ships coming into or going out of the Downs, or
brought up before our town, and I used to listen with deep interest to
the account of his adventures in all parts of the world with which our
neighbour, Captain Bland, was wont to entertain us when he came to our
house, or when we went in to take tea with him and Mrs Bland and their
daughter Mary. I can, therefore, scarcely remember the time when I did
not wish to become a sailor, though as my eldest brother Bill was
intended for the sea, and indeed went away when I was still a little
fellow, my father had thoughts of bringing me up to some trade or other.
I should have been content to follow my father's wishes, or rather to
have done what he believed best for me, had I been sent away inland,
where I could not have heard nautical matters talked about, and where
the sea and shipping would have been out of my sight. While I remained
at home the desire grew stronger and stronger to become like the
seafaring men I was constantly meeting--pilots, masters and mates, and
boatmen--and I may venture to say that a finer race of sailors are
nowhere to be found than those belonging to Deal.

Captain Bland was a thorough sailor. He dearly loved the sea, and the
ship he commanded, and his crew--at least he took a warm interest in
their welfare--but he loved his wife and daughter more, and for their
sakes he remained on shore longer than he would otherwise have done.
Still, he made three or four voyages while I was a youngster, and he
always spoke as if he had no intention of abandoning the sea until he
had laid by a competency for old age. How many a master says the same,
and goes on ploughing the ocean in the delusive hope of reaping a
harvest till the great reaper gathers him into his garner.

Notwithstanding my predilections in favour of a sea life, I was still
undecided as to my future career, when one winter's day, after school
hours, as I was taking a run out on the London Road, I saw coming along
towards me a fine broad, well-built lad, with a sun-burnt countenance,
and a stick having a bundle at the end of it over his shoulder. His
dre