as he walked up and down the playground, handling his
dirk. Even Pigeon felt a great respect for him, and looked on him with
somewhat an eye of envy, and thought he should like to go into the navy.
Had he gone, he would have had to learn many a lesson, or would very
soon have been kicked out of it again. Jack dined at the master's table
at one end of the long dining-room, and good Mrs Jones looked at him
very proudly, for she had always thought him one of her best boys; and
many an eye gazed wistfully at his anchor buttons and dirk and smiling
jovial countenance, as he laughed and chatted with wonderful ease with
old Rowley, as if he was not a bit afraid of him; and some idle fellows
envied him his emancipation from Virgil and Horace, and other classical
authors, for whom they had so little affection themselves. Then he had
to jump up and hurry off to catch the coach, in order to reach the mail,
which was to carry him down that night to Northamptonshire. Jack could
obtain no certain information about Murray and Adair, but old Rowley
told him he understood they had already been sent to sea. Jack spent
three very jolly days at home. He had a big trunk filled with all sorts
of things which he was to stow away in his chest. Then the moment came
for parting--the family were not much addicted to crying, not that they
did not love each other very much. Jack's little sister Lucy cried the
most. He promised to write to her, and she promised to write to him and
tell him about everybody and everything, and the horses and dogs, and
something very like a tear came into his eyes, and a difficulty of
speaking to which he was not accustomed, as he gave her his last kiss.
Just then, Admiral Triton, Jack's naval friend, drove up to the door,
and by a mighty effort all traces of his feelings were banished--not
that the Admiral would have thought the worse of him a bit on account of
them. The Admiral was of the old school. He had one leg, the other
being supplied by what looked remarkably like a mop-stick. His
appearance was somewhat rough, especially when he went out in rainy
weather, and his countenance was not a little battered, but his heart
was as tender and almost as simple as Jack's or even Lucy's for that
matter. He had insisted on taking Jack to Portsmouth and seeing him on
board. "It will be an advantage to the youngster perhaps, and, besides,
it will freshen me up a bit myself," he observed to Jack's father; "so
say