Crabs, too, and zoophytes, sea anemones, and algae, were as keenly my study as if I were a marine zoologist, although I might not perhaps have been able to describe them in scientific language; while, should a stiff south-westerly gale cast up, as it frequently did amongst other wreckage and ocean flotsam and jetsam, fresh oysters torn from carefully cultivated beds further down the coast, none were sooner acquainted with the interesting fact than I, or gulped down the savoury "natives" with greater gusto--opening them skilfully with an old sailor's jack-knife, which was a treasure I had picked up amidst the pebbly shingle in one of my excursions.
My chief resort, however, when I could steal away thither without being perceived from the school, was the quay close to the entrance to the harbour, at the mouth of the little river which there made its efflux to the sea.
Here the small coasting craft and Channel Island steamers of low draught of water that used the port would lay up while discharging cargo, before going away empty or in ballast, as there was little export trade from the place; and it was my delight to board the different vessels and make friends with the seamen, who would let me go up the rigging and mount the masts to the dog-vane, the height of my climbing ambition, while telling me the names of the different ropes and spars and instructing me in all the mysteries of shipping life, in which I took the deepest interest.
I was a born sailor, if anything.
There is no use in my denying the fact I must have inherited it with my father's blood! Once, Dr Hellyer spying about after me, on account of my not having turned up either at dinner or tea--a most unusual circumstance--found me messing with the hands in the fo'c's'le of a coal brig.
I recollect he pushed me along back to the school the whole way, holding me at arm's length by the scruff of the neck; and, besides the infliction of a round dozen of "pandies" and an imposition of five hundred lines of Virgil's Aeneid to learn by heart, threatened me with all sorts of pains and penalties should he ever catch me going down to the quay again.
But, all his exhortations were of no avail! Go to the harbour amongst the vessels I would, whenever I could get an opportunity of sneaking away unnoticed; and, the more I saw of ships and sailors, the more firmly I made up my mind to go to sea as soon as I saw a chance of getting afloat, in spite of the very different arrangements Uncle George had made for my future walk in life--arrangements that were recalled to my mind every quarter in the letters my relation periodically wrote to me after the receipt of the Doctor's terminal reports on my character and educational progress.

These latter were generally of a damaging nature, letting me in for a lecture on my bad behaviour, coupled with the prognostication, which I am sure really came from Aunt Matilda through this side wind, that unless I mended my ways speedily I should never be promoted to that situation of clerk in uncle's office which was being held open for me as soon as I was old enough, and the thought of which--with the enthralling spell of the ocean upon me--I hated! To tell the strict truth, these quarterly reports of Dr Hellyer in respect of my conduct were not wholly undeserved; for, with the exception of displaying a marked partiality for mathematics, which, fortunately for my subsequent knowledge of navigation, Mr Smallpage kindly fostered and encouraged to the best of his ability, my studies were terribly irksome to me, and my lessons being consequently neglected, led to my having impositions without number.

I believe I must have learnt the whole of Virgil by heart, although I could not now construe the introductory lines of the first book of the Aeneid; and as for history I could then, nor now, no more tell you the names of the Roman emperors, or the dates of accession of the various Kings of England, than I could square the circle, or give you the cubical contents of the pyramids of Egypt off-hand.
The personal rows, too, that I got into with Dr Hellyer were innumerable; and I really think he wore out three flat rulers while I was a member of the school, in inflicting his dearly-loved "pandies" on my suffering palms.
The most important of these, what I may term "private differences," between my worthy preceptor and myself, after my first experience of his "way" of making the boys obey him, without flogging them, arose from the same cause--Master Slodgers, my enemy from the date of my entrance within the select academy, although, if you recollect, he did not "get the best of me" even then! Some six months after that memorable occasion, having developed much bone and sinew in the meantime, besides cultivating the noble art of self-defence under the tuition of my chum Tom, I challenged the lanky cur on the self-same ground where he had first assailed me; when I gave him such a beating that he could not leave his bed in the dormitory for nearly a week afterwards.

For this--what I considered--just retaliation, I received the encomiums of the majority of the fellows, who detested Slodgers for his sneaking as well as bullying ways with the youngsters; but Dr Hellyer, with whom he still continued a favourite, took my triumph in such ill part, that he treated me to no less than six dozen "pandies," incarcerating me besides in an empty coal cellar, on a diet of bread and water, in solitary confinement below for the same length of time that Slodgers was laid up ill in bed above stairs.
However, after that day I had it all my own way with the boys, for I was strongly-built and thick-set for my age, looking two years older than I really was.

I could fight and lick all the rest of the fellows at the time, not excepting even Tom my instructor, although he and I were much too good friends to try conclusions on the point, and I was the acknowledged leader of the school.