ll, where already were
hung a number of fine pictures, illustrative of England's naval
victories; and my friend then took me to see an old shipmate of his, who
was one of the officers of the Hospital. When he heard that I wished to
go to sea, and was so warm an admirer of Nelson, he exclaimed--

"He'll just suit me. Let him stay here for a few days. We'll fish out
some of our men who long served with Nelson, and if he keeps his ears
turning right and left he'll hear many a yarn to astonish him. He must
have patience though. The old fellows will not open out at once; their
memories are like wells, you must throw a little water down at first
before you can get them to draw."

I was delighted with the proposal. My friend, however, began to make
excuses, saying that he ought to take me back, and that I had no clothes
with me. At this the Greenwich officer, Lieutenant R--, laughed
heartily.

"A shirt-collar and a pocket-comb? What does a midshipman want more?"
he exclaimed. "But I will find him all the luxuries he may require.
Let him stay, and tell his friends that he is in safe keeping."

So it was arranged, and I found myself an inmate of Greenwich Hospital.

After I had been seen walking up and down the terrace a few times with
Lieutenant R--, the pensioners, when I spoke to them, answered me
readily, though at first rather shy of talking of themselves or their
adventures. At length I fell in with a fine old man, and sitting down
on one of the benches facing the river, I began to tell him how much I
honoured and loved all sailors, and how I longed myself to become one.

"Ay, boy, there are good and bad at sea as well as on shore; but as to
the life, it's good enough; and if I had mine to begin again, I would
choose it before all others," he answered, and once more relapsed into
silence.

Just then Lieutenant R-- passed; he nodded at me with a smile, saying,
as he passed on, "My old friend there will tell you more of Lord Nelson
than any man now in the Hospital."

The old man looked at me with a beaming expression on his countenance.

"Ay, that I can," he said, "boy and man I sailed with him all my life,
from the day he got his first command till he was struck down in the
hour of victory. So to speak, sir, I may say I knew him from the very
day he first stepped on board a ship. This is how it was: My father was
a seaman, and belonged to the `Raisonable,' just fitted out by Captain
Suckling, and lying