FLEEMING'S FATHER 11 



ious with his whip and spurs,' settled down into a 

 kind of Tony Lumpkin, waiting for the shoes of his 

 father and his aunt. Thomas Frewen, the youngest, 

 is briefly dismissed as * a handsome beau ' ; but he 

 had the merit or the good fortune to become a 

 doctor of medicine, so that when the crash came 

 he was not empty-handed for the war of life. 

 Charles, at the day-school of Northiam, grew so 

 well acquainted with the rod, that his floggings 

 became matter of pleasantry and reached the ears 

 of Admiral Buckner. Hereupon that tall, rough- 

 voiced, formidable uncle entered with the lad into 

 a covenant : every time that Charles was thrashed 

 he was to pay the Admiral a penny ; every day that 

 he escaped, the process was to be reversed. * I 

 recollect,' writes Charles, ' going crying to my 

 mother to be taken to the Admiral to pay my 

 debt.' It would seem by these terms the specula- 

 tion was a losing one ; yet it is probable it paid 

 indirectly by bringing the boy under remark. The 

 Admiral was no enemy to dunces ; he loved courage, 

 and Charles, while yet little more than a baby, 

 would ride the great horse into the pond. Presently 

 it was decided that here was the stuff of a fine 

 sailor ; and at an early period the name of Charles 

 Jenkin was entered on a ship's books. 



From Northiam he was sent to another school at 

 Boonshill, near Rye, where the master took * infinite 

 delight ' in strapping him. ' It keeps me warm 



