The Project Gutenberg EBook of Jeff Benson, or the Young Coastguardsman, by
R.M. Ballantyne

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Title: Jeff Benson, or the Young Coastguardsman

Author: R.M. Ballantyne

Release Date: June 7, 2007 [EBook #21743]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JEFF BENSON ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

JEFF BENSON, OR THE YOUNG COASTGUARDSMAN, BY R.M. BALLANTYNE.

CHAPTER ONE.

OUR HERO INTRODUCED WITH SOME OF HIS FRIENDS.

A poor schoolmaster named Benson died, not long ago, in a little town on
the south-east coast of England, which shall be called Cranby.

He left an only son, Jeffrey, and an elder brother, Jacob, to mourn his
loss. The son mourned for his father profoundly, for he loved him much.
The brother mourned him moderately, for he was a close-fisted,
hard-hearted, stern man of the law, whose little soul, enclosed in a
large body, had not risen to the conception of any nobler aim in life
than the acquisition of wealth, or any higher enjoyment than a social
evening with men like himself.

The son Jeffrey was a free-and-easy, hearty, good-natured lad, with an
overgrown and handsome person, an enthusiastic spirit, a strong will,
and a thorough belief in his own ability to achieve anything to which he
chose to set his mind.

Up to the time of his father's death, Jeff's main idea of the desirable
in life was--_fun_! Fun in all its more innocent phases seemed to him
the sum of what was wanted by man. He had experienced it in all its
scholastic forms ever since he was a little boy; and even when, at the
mature age of fifteen, he was promoted to the rank of usher in his
father's school, his chief source of solace and relaxation was the old
play-ground, where he naturally reigned supreme, being the best runner,
rower, wrestler, jumper, gymnast, and, generally, the best fellow in the
school.

He had never known a mother's love, and his father's death was the first
blow that helped to shatter his early notions of felicity. The cloud
that overshadowed him at that time was very dark, and he received no
sympathy worth mentioning from his only relative, the solicitor.

"Well, J