that.
"Next day, leaving my friend carefully under lock and key in charge ofthe worthy proprietor of the Fountain Hotel, I got into uniform, andhaving hired a shore boat, went off to my ship to report myself. To myjoy I found Commander C--to be as kind and jovial a sailor as any onecould wish to see and talk to. I was not long before I broached thesubject nearest to my heart.
"`Objection to your dog on board?' he said, laughing. `Bring him, byall means; he won't kill mine, though, I hope.'
"`That I'm sure he won't,' I replied, feeling as happy as if I had justcome into a fortune.
"I went on shore with a light heart, and hugged the dog.
"`We're not going to be parted, dear old boy,' I said. `You are goingon board with me to-morrow.'
"The evening before my heart was as gloomy as the weather; to-day thesun shone, and my heart was as bright as the sky was blue. Nero and Iset out after luncheon to have a look at the town.
"Sheerness on two sides is bounded by the dockyard, which divides itfrom the sea. Indeed, the dockyard occupies the most comfortablecorner, and seems to say to the town, `Stand aside; you're nobody.' Theprincipal thoroughfare of Sheerness has on one side of it the high,bleak boundary wall, while on the other stands as ragged-looking a lineof houses as one could well imagine, putting one in mind of a regimentof militia newly embodied and minus uniform. As you journey from thestation, everything reminds you that you are in a naval seaport of thelowest class. Lazy watermen by the dozen loll about the pier-head withtheir arms, to say nothing of their hands, buried deeply in theirbreeches-pockets, while every male you meet is either soldier or sailor,dockyard's man or solemn-looking policeman. Every shop that isn't abeer-house, is either a general dealer's, where you can purchaseanything nautical, from a sail-needle to sea boots, or an eating house,in the windows of which are temptingly exposed joints of suspiciouslyred corned-beef, soapy-looking mutton and uninviting pork, and where youare invited to partake of tea and shrimps for ninepence.
"So on the whole the town of Sheerness itself is by no means a veryinviting one, nor a very savoury one either.
"But away out beyond the dockyard and over the moat, and Sheernessbrightens up a little, and spreads out both to left and right, and youfind terraces with trim little gardens and green-painted palings, whileinstead of the odour of tar and cheese and animal decay, you can breathethe fresh, pure air from over the ocean, and see the green waves cometumbling in and break in soft music on the snowy shingle.
"Here live the benedicts of the flagship. At half-past seven of a finesummer morning you may see them, hurried and hungry, trotting alongtowards the dockyard, looking as if another hour's sleep would not havecome amiss to them. But once they get on board their ships, howmagic-like will be the disappearance of the plump soles, the curriedlobster, the corned-beef, and the remains of last night's pigeon-pie,while the messman can hardly help looking anxious, and the servants runeach other down in their hurry to supply the tea and toast!
"Of the country immediately around this town of Sheerness, the principalfeatures are open ditches, slimy and green, evolving an effluvium thatkeeps the very bees at bay, encircling low flat fields and marshy moors,affording subsistence only to crazy-looking sheep and water rats. Thepeople of Sheerness eat the sheep; I have not been advised as to theireating the rats.
"But, and if you are young, and your muscles are well developed, andyour tendo Achillis wiry and strong, then when the summer is in itsprime and the sun is brightly shining, shall you leave the odoriferoustown and its aguish surroundings, and like `Jack of the bean-stalk,'climb up into a comparative fairyland. At the top of the hill standsthe little village of Minster, its romantic old church and ivied towerbegirt with the graves of generations long since passed and gone, thevery tombstones of which are mouldering to dust. The view from herewell repays the labour of climbing the bean-stalk. But leave it behindand journey seaward over the rolling tableland. Rural hamlets; prettyvillages; tree-lined lanes and clovery fields with grazing kine--youshall scarcely be tired of such quiet and peaceful scenery when youarrive at the edge of the clayey cliff, with the waves breaking amongthe boulders on the beach far beneath you, and the sea spreading outtowards the horizon a vast plain of rippling green, crowded with shipsfrom every land and clime. Heigho! won't you be sorry to descend yourbean-stalk and re-enter Sheerness once again?
"I do not think, Ida, that ship dogs' lives are as a rule very happyones. They get far too little exercise and far too much to eat, so theygrow both fat and lazy. But in this particular flagship neither I normy friend Nero had very much to grumble about. The commander was asgood as he looked, and there was not an officer in the ship, nor a maneither, that had not a kind word for the dog.
"The great event of the day, as far as Nero and I were concerned, wasgoing on shore in the afternoon for a walk, and a dip in the sea whenthe weather was warm. Whether the weather was warm or not, Nero alwayshad his bath, for the distance to the shore being hardly half a mile, nosooner had the boat left the vessel's side than there were cries fromsome of us officers of the vessel--
"`Hie over, you dogs, hie over, boys.'
"The first to spring into the sea would be Nero, next went his friendSambo, and afterwards doggie Daidles. The three black heads in thewater put one in mind of seals. Although the retrievers managed to keepwell up for some time, gradually the Newfoundland forged ahead, and hewas in long before the others, and standing very anxiously gazingseawards to notice how Sambo was getting on; for the currents runfearfully strong there. Daidles always got in second. Of Daidles Nerotook not the slightest notice; even had he been drowning he would havemade no attempt to save him; but no sooner did Sambo approach the stonesteps than with a cry of fond anxiety, the noble Newfoundland used torush downwards, seize Sambo gently by the neck, and help him out.
"I was coming from the shore one day, when Sambo fell from a port intothe sea. Nero at once leapt into the water, and swimming up to hisfriend, attempted to seize him. The conversation between them seemed tobe something like the following--
"_Nero_: `You're drowning, aren't you? Let me hold you up.'
"_Sambo_: `Nonsense, Nero, let go my neck; I could keep afloat as longas yourself.'
"_Nero_: `Very well, here goes then; but I _must_ pick something up.'
"So saying, Nero swam after a piece of newspaper, seized that, and swamto the ladder with it; some of the men lent him a helping hand, and uphe went.
"The flagship was a tall old line of battle ship; on the starboard sidewas a broad ladder, on the port merely a ladder of ropes. On stormydays, with a heavy sea on, the starboard ladder probably could not beused, and so the dog had to be lowered into the boat and hoisted uptherefrom with a long rope. To make matters more simple and easy forhim, one of the men made the dog a broad belt of canvas. To this corsetthe end of the rope was attached, and away went Nero up or down as thecase happened to be.
"Although as gentle by nature as a lamb, Nero would never stand muchimpudence from another dog without resenting it. When passing throughthe dockyard one day, we met an immense Saint Bernard, who strutted upto Nero, and at once addressed him in what appeared to me the followingstrain--
"`Hullo! Got on shore, have you? I daresay you think yourself a prettyfellow now? But you're not a bit bigger than I am, and not so handsome.I've a good mind to bite you. Yah! you're only a surgeon's dog, and mymaster is captain of the dockyard. Yah!'
"`Don't growl at me,' replied Nero; `my master is every bit as good asyours, and a vast deal better, _so_ don't raise your hair, else I maylose my temper.'
"`Yah! yah!' growled the Saint Bernard.
"`Come on, Nero,' I cried; `don't get angry, old boy.'
"`Half a minute, master,' replied Nero; `here is a gentleman that wantsto be brought to his bearings.'
"Next moment those two dogs were at it. It was an ugly fight, and someblood was spilled on both sides, but at last Nero was triumphant. Hehauled the Saint Bernard under a gun carriage
and punished him severely,I being thus powerless to do anything.
"Then Nero came out and shook himself, while the other dog lay beatenand cowed.
"`I don't think,' said Nero to me, `that he will boast about his masteragain in a hurry.'
"Generosity is a part of the Newfoundland dog's nature. At my father'svillage in the far north, called Inverurie, there used to be a largeblack half-bred dog, that until Nero made an appearance lorded it overall the other dogs in the town. This animal was a bully, and thereforea coward. He had killed more than one dog.
"The very first day that he saw Nero he must needs rush out and attackhim. He found himself on his back on the pavement in a few moments.Then came the curious part of
Aileen Aroon, A Memoir Page 48
