CONTENTS. PAGE I FIND OUT WHAT A II. DOUBTS AND FEARS. MY FIRST NIGHT IN COCKNEYDOM III. A FELINE ADVENTURE. PASSED HOORAY! CONVERSA- MEDICAL LIFE IN THE NAVY. CHAPTER I. BY RAIL TO LONDON. LITTLE MOONFACE. EUSTON SQUARE. I CHOSE the navy. I am not at all certain what it was that determined my choice; probably thisI have a mole on my left arm, which my gossiping old nurse (rest the old lady's soul!) used to assert was a sure sign that I was born to be a rover. Then I had been several voyages to the Arctic regions, and therefore knew what a sea-life meant, and what it didn't mean; that, no doubt, combined with an extensive acquaintance with the novels of Captain Marryat, had much to do with it. Be this as it may, I did choose that service, and have never yet repented doing so. Well, after a six weeks' preparatory read-up I packed my traps, taking care not to forget my classtickets to prove the number of lectures attended each course-a certificate of age and another of virtue, my degree in surgery (M. Ch.), and my M.D. or medical degree; and with a stick in my hand, and a porter at my side, I set out for the nearest railway station. Previously, of course, I had bidden B double adieus to all my friends, had a great many blessings hurled after me, and not a few old shoes; had kissed a whole family of pretty cousins, ingeniously commencing with the grandmother, although she happened to be as yellow as a withered dockleaf, and wrinkled as a Malaga raisin; had composed innumerable verses, and burned them as soon as written. 66 "Ticket for London, please," said I, after giving a final wipe to my eyes with the cuff of my coat. Four, two, six," was the laconic reply from the Jack-in-the-box; and this I understood to mean 4l. 28. 6d. of the sterling money of the realm—for the young gentleman, like most of his class, talked as if he were merely a column in a ledger and had £. s. d. written on his classic brow with indelible marking ink, an idea which railway directors ought to see carried out to prevent mistakes. I got on board the train, a porter banged-to the door so quickly that my coat-tails were embraced between the hinges; the guard said "all right," though it wasn't all right; the whistle shrieked, the engine puffed, the wheels went round with a groan and a grunt, and presently we were rattling over the bridge that spans the romantic Dee, with the white walls of the Granite City glimmering in the moonlight far behind us. After extricating my imprisoned garment, I leant over the window, and began to feel very dull and sentimental. I positively think I would have wept a little, had not the wind just then blown the smoke in my face, causing me to put up the window in disgust. I had a whole first-class compartment to myself, so I determined to |