A Sailor-Boy's Log-Book from Portsmouth to the Peiho by Walter White

old Guardho -- Well, Youngster! what do you want? -- The Main-deck -- Encouraging Reception -- Agree to enter for Ten Years -- A hard Supper, and harder Pillow -- Turning in and turning out -- Rouse and Bit -- A Chance for a Wash -- Pipe to Breakfast -- What the Doctor said -- I am passed -- Starboard and Port -- Knots and Hitches -- Handling a Boat -- Feather and Toss -- My first Uniform -- A Ditty-box -- The Mast-head -- Cutlass Drill -- Rifle Drill -- Big Gun Exercise -- Splices, left-handed Eyes, Matthew Walker, and Turk's Head -- Old Pipes -- Hawser-eye and Dead-eye -- Compass and Lead-line -- The _Sealark_ -- Sore Feet -- A Day's Work-Out on a Cruise -- Distress -- The wrong Signal -- Return to the Guardho -- The _Highflyer_ -- Are you Napoleon Bonyparte? -- A Lambasting.

Like many an English boy who quits school and the playground for the counter or workshop, I did not find it at all easy to settle down, for I had devoured _Robinson Crusoe_ and not a few books of travel and wild adventure, and thought ploughing the main and seeing foreign countries would suit me much better than learning how to sell locks and hinges, kettles and scythes. Persuasion was tried on me as it has been and will be on others; but I was not to be persuaded, having made up my mind to become a sailor. So on a very cold winter day, which seemed to chill my naval ardour, as the third-class train rolled leisurely to its destination, I presented myself at the admiral's office in Portsmouth dockyard, holding in my hand a small trunk, which contained my little stock of clothing and sundries, and was forthwith sent away in a boat to the _Illustrious_, training-ship, which lay moored about half a mile from the shore. I was surprised, not to say startled, to see how big the old Guardho looked as we drew near, and might have indulged a little sentiment, but the men rowing to the foot of the gangway on the port side (there was a proper stair on the starboard side), cried, "Now, my lad, up ye go. " It wouldn't do, I thought, to hesitate; so taking my trunk in one hand, and seizing the man-rope with the other, I scrambled up what then seemed to me a dangerous wooden wall. It was an awkward way of beginning a new career, and not very encouraging; for no friendly welcome awaits the novice who wishes to serve his Queen and fight for his country. It was getting dark; the deck appeared deserted: I could see lights gleaming from below, and hear a confused hum of voices; and I stood shivering, uncertain what to do, when the old quartermaster of the watch came up and accosted me: "Well, youngster, what do you want?"