1^6 THE LIFE OF 



mastication. No wonder then that Tom became a very proper 

 man: all the girls in the village admired his comely proportions 

 — they absolutely were all in love with him, but he was reserved 

 and mode«t, never going beyond a Platonic kiss, even with the 

 prettiest. In this state of affairs Tom saw he must marry one to 

 save himself from the importunities of the rest, or else bid good 

 bye to the village. Other circumstances induced him to adopt 

 the latter plan. .Firstly, he did not want a wife; secondly, he 

 had become tired of farms and farming implements, barley bread 

 and unadulterated bacon : and, lastly, by some singular chance, 

 he had an opportunity of smelling gunpowder. 



Tom would be a soldier ! 



Not one of the common sort, though; his native pride would 

 not brook such a thing — lie would either be a dragoon or a marine. 

 "I 'II toss up for it,". says, Tom. "Heads, a marine; tails, a 

 dragoon. Heads! ' heads came uppermost, and Tom came to 

 Plymouth, where he was made a Royal Marine, placed under 

 the tuition of a drill sergeant, and introduced to Stonehouse bar- 

 racks. Tom's master in the mean time not knowing the rationale 

 of these proceedings, came to Plymouth, and demanded his run- 

 away apprentice. So good a man, so fit a hero for his Majesty's 

 service, was not to be parted with so easily. Tom was sent on 

 board the CuUoden, then lying in Cawsand Bay, and Master 

 Ford returned unsuccessfully to South Brent. 



Whilst practising the great gun exercise, in hopes of soon 

 getting a whack at the French, Tom was seized with the small 

 pox, and was sent to the Royal Naval Hospital : here, in spite 

 of the disease and the doctors, Tom soon got well, and in a very 

 short period found himself standing out to sea, as sentry, on the 

 forecastle of the Am[)hion frigate ; in this vessel he saw something 

 of the world, had some jollifications with the lasses of Milford, 

 drank whisky at Cork, eat ripe lemons at Madeira, and caught 

 capelings on the shores of Newfoundland : time past so pleasantly 

 and so rapidly that he was astonished to find himself again in 

 barracks at Stonehouse. 



Tom's next cruise was in the Hussar frigate, which was 

 wrecked on the coast of France: this circumstance proved the 

 source of all his troubles: he was cast on shore, senseless, from 

 a wound which he had received in the head either by being 

 driven violently against a rock or some part of the vessel after 

 she had struck. Since that time Tom has, occasionally, shown 

 symptoms of some disease in his upper works. 



Having remained six months in a French prison near Brest, 

 growing thin on garlic and soup maigre, he was released in an 

 exchajit;e of prisoners, returned to Plymouth and was again estab- 

 lished at the Stonehouse barracks. 



He was short'y d raited to the Saturn,' 74 guns, and cruised for 

 two years in the channel. During these two years, he was not 

 unfrequently very erratic in his conduct : sometimes so much so 



