"The cap'en ain't a going to starve you!" When we got on deck again, after a hearty meal, the sun had set and the evening was closing in; but, it was bright and clear overhead and the twinkling Nash lights, two white and one red, by Saint Donat's Castle, were well away to windward on the starboard hand.
Although there was no necessity whatever for my keeping up, I was too much excited to turn in, even for the purpose of seeing how snug my new quarters were; so, Sam keeping me company, in order to have as much of me as he could--for the time was now approaching for our parting--he and I paced the poop all night, talking of all sorts of things, and planning out a wonderful future when I should be captain of a ship of my own.
Early in the morning watch, the wind lulled down to a gentle breeze, as it frequently does in summer before sunrise.

This checked the ship's rate of speed through the water considerably, so staying our progress that, instead of our arriving off Ilfracombe close on to daylight, as Captain Billings had sanguinely reckoned, it was long past eight bells and the hour of breakfast, to which we were both again invited into the cabin, before we neared the headland marking the bay sufficiently for us to heave to and signal for the pilot's boat to come off and fetch him.
We were not long detained, however.
Hardly had the _Esmeralda's_ main-topsail been backed, ere a smart little cutter came sailing out towards us, with the familiar "P" and her number displayed on her spanker; so Sam hastened to bid his last farewell to me, making ready to accompany the pilot ashore.
"Good-bye, my cockbird," said he, wringing my hand with a grip that made it wince again, a tremble the while in his voice and something suspiciously like a tear in his eye.

"Keep honest, and do your duty, and never forget your father, laddie, nor old Sam Pengelly, who'll be right glad to see you again when you return from this v'yage!" "Good-bye, and God reward you, Sam, for all your kindness to me," I returned, almost breaking down, and having to exercise all my self- command in order not to make an exhibition of myself before my new shipmates.

"I'll be certain to come and see you and Jane the moment I touch English ground again." "All right, my hearty, fare thee well," said he, stepping into the boat of the pilot after that worthy, while the _Esmeralda's_ sails were let fill again on the vessel resuming her course down the Bristol Channel; but, as I bent over the taffrail, and waved my hand to Sam for the last time, I could hear his parting hail in the distance, sounding as loud almost as if he were alongside.
"Good-bye, my laddie, and good luck to the _Esmeralda_ on her v'yage.
Cap'en Billings, remember the b'y!" "Aye, aye, my hearty, so I will," shouted out the skipper, cordially.
"Good luck to you, Pengelly!" and then the pilot made in for the land, and the ship's yards were squared.

The royals were soon afterwards sent aloft, the wind having sprung up again steadily, still from the nor'- east, as the tide began to make, and we ran now before it, almost sailing free, so as to pass to the southwards of Lundy Island and weather Hartland Point, on our way out into the open sea.
Captain Billings, seeing the wind so favourable, instead of hugging the land, determined to make all the westing he could at this the very outset of our voyage, in order to avoid the cross currents hanging about the chops of the Channel, and off the Scilly Isles--which frequently, when aided by the contrary winds they engender, drive a ship on to the French coast, and into the Bay of Biscay, thus entailing a lot of beating up to the northwards again to gain a proper westerly course.
Under these circumstances, therefore, my skipper, who I could see thus early "had his head," as they say, "screwed on straight," taking his point of departure from Lundy, and so bidding farewell to the land which he didn't intend approaching again for the next few weeks if he could help it, kept a straight course by the compass due west for twenty-four hours, by the end of which time, and this was about noon on our second day out, we had cleared the Scilly Islands, passing some twenty leagues to the northward of the Bishop's Rock.