Dickens, Charles – The Uncommercial Traveller

Drill. ‘Atten-tion!’ Instantly a hundred boys stood forth in the

paved yard as one boy; bright, quick, eager, steady, watchful for

the look of command, instant and ready for the word. Not only was

there complete precision – complete accord to the eye and to the

ear – but an alertness in the doing of the thing which deprived it,

curiously, of its monotonous or mechanical character. There was

perfect uniformity, and yet an individual spirit and emulation. No

spectator could doubt that the boys liked it. With noncommissioned

officers varying from a yard to a yard and a half

high, the result could not possibly have been attained otherwise.

They marched, and counter-marched, and formed in line and square,

and company, and single file and double file, and performed a

variety of evolutions; all most admirably. In respect of an air of

enjoyable understanding of what they were about, which seems to be

forbidden to English soldiers, the boys might have been small

French troops. When they were dismissed and the broadsword

exercise, limited to a much smaller number, succeeded, the boys who

had no part in that new drill, either looked on attentively, or

Page 131

Dickens, Charles – The Uncommercial Traveller

disported themselves in a gymnasium hard by. The steadiness of the

broadsword boys on their short legs, and the firmness with which

they sustained the different positions, was truly remarkable.

The broadsword exercise over, suddenly there was great excitement

and a rush. Naval Drill!

In the corner of the ground stood a decked mimic ship, with real

masts, yards, and sails – mainmast seventy feet high. At the word

of command from the Skipper of this ship – a mahogany-faced Old

Salt, with the indispensable quid in his cheek, the true nautical

roll, and all wonderfully complete – the rigging was covered with a

swarm of boys: one, the first to spring into the shrouds,

outstripping all the others, and resting on the truck of the maintopmast

in no time.

And now we stood out to sea, in a most amazing manner; the Skipper

himself, the whole crew, the Uncommercial, and all hands present,

implicitly believing that there was not a moment to lose, that the

wind had that instant chopped round and sprung up fair, and that we

were away on a voyage round the world. Get all sail upon her!

With a will, my lads! Lay out upon the main-yard there! Look

alive at the weather earring! Cheery, my boys! Let go the sheet,

now! Stand by at the braces, you! With a will, aloft there!

Belay, starboard watch! Fifer! Come aft, fifer, and give ’em a

tune! Forthwith, springs up fifer, fife in hand – smallest boy

ever seen – big lump on temple, having lately fallen down on a

paving-stone – gives ’em a tune with all his might and main. Hooroar,

fifer! With a will, my lads! Tip ’em a livelier one, fifer!

Fifer tips ’em a livelier one, and excitement increases. Shake ’em

out, my lads! Well done! There you have her! Pretty, pretty!

Every rag upon her she can carry, wind right astarn, and ship

cutting through the water fifteen knots an hour!

At this favourable moment of her voyage, I gave the alarm ‘A man

overboard!’ (on the gravel), but he was immediately recovered, none

the worse. Presently, I observed the Skipper overboard, but

forbore to mention it, as he seemed in no wise disconcerted by the

accident. Indeed, I soon came to regard the Skipper as an

amphibious creature, for he was so perpetually plunging overboard

to look up at the hands aloft, that he was oftener in the bosom of

the ocean than on deck. His pride in his crew on those occasions

was delightful, and the conventional unintelligibility of his

orders in the ears of uncommercial landlubbers and loblolly boys,

though they were always intelligible to the crew, was hardly less

pleasant. But we couldn’t expect to go on in this way for ever;

dirty weather came on, and then worse weather, and when we least

expected it we got into tremendous difficulties. Screw loose in

the chart perhaps – something certainly wrong somewhere – but here

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207

Leave a Reply 0

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *