ected that he should be waited on exactly as he
was himself. True Blue jumped out of bed; but when he came to put on
his clothes, they had disappeared. In their stead there was a
midshipman's uniform suit, dirk, and hat, and cockade complete, while a
chest stood open, containing shirts, and socks, and shoes, and a
quadrant, and books--indeed, a most perfect outfit.

"There's a mistake," he said to himself. "They have been and brought
Sir Henry's traps in here, and John has carried off my clothes, and
forgot to bring them back. I never do like ringing the bell, it seems
so fine-gentleman-like. Still, if he doesn't come, it will be the only
way to get to him." While waiting, he was looking about, when his eye
fell on a paper on the dressing-table. His own name was on it. It was
a document from the Admiralty, directing Mr Billy True Blue Freeborn,
midshipman of H.M. frigate _Ruby_, to go down and join her in a week's
time. He rubbed his eyes--he read the paper over and over again; he
shook himself, for he thought that he must be still in bed and asleep,
and then he very nearly burst into tears.

"No, no!" he exclaimed passionately; "it's what I don't want to be. I
can't be and won't be. I'll not go and be above Paul, and Abel, and
Peter, and Tom, which I should be if I was on the quarterdeck: I
shouldn't be one of them any longer. I couldn't mess with them and talk
with them, as I have always done. I know my place; I like Sir Henry and
many of the other young gentlemen very much, and even Mr Nott, though
he does play curious pranks now and then; but I never wished to be one
of them, and what's more, I won't, and so my mind is made up."

Just then he saw another document on the table. It was a letter
addressed to him. He opened it and found that it came from Paul
Pringle. It began:

"Dear Godson,--That you must always be to me. Who should come to see
me first, as I left the hospital, but our Captain--bless him! He
tells me there is talk of putting you on the quarterdeck. Now, that's
what I never wished for you, any more than your own father did. His
last words were, `Let him be brought up as a true British seaman.'

"That's what your other godfathers and I have done for you--as you'll
allow, Billy. Well, as to the quarterdeck idea, we all met and had a
talk about it. The long and the short of what we came to is, that you
must do as you wish. A man may, we allow, be on the quarter