They "put him up to
things," as he said; they made a variety; and he was always glad of
listeners to his wonderful stories, which rather diverted the other
boys, who, though they sometimes made game of them, were much less
apt to pick them to pieces than was Sam.
Poor Captain Merrifield! what had not befallen him, according to his
son? He had been stuck on to a rock of loadstone; he had been bitten
by mosquitos as big as jackdaws--at least as jack-snipes; he had sat
down to rest on the trunk of a fallen tree, and it whisked him over
on his face, and turned out to he a rattle-snake--at least, a boa-
constrictor! Nay, Henry discoursed on the ponies he had himself
tamed, the rabbits he had shot, the trees he had climbed, the nests
he had found, the rats he had killed, in terms he durst not use when
his brother was by; or if he did, and Sam brought him to book, he
always said "it was all fun." It often seemed as if he did not
himself know whether he meant to be believed or otherwise; and as to
his intentions for his sailor life, they were, as has been already
seen, of the most splendid character! Sometimes he shot the French
admiral dead from the mast-head; sometimes he sailed into Plymouth
with the whole enemy's fleet behind him; sometimes he, the youngest
midshipman, rescued the whole crew in a wreck where all the other
officers were drowned; sometimes he shot a shark through the head,
just as it was about to make a meal of Prince Alfred!
He certainly was thus an entertaining companion to those who did not
pay heed to truth, and liked to hear or laugh at great swelling
words; and the Grevilles, on their idle day, were glad to have him
with them, and were rather curious to prove how much fact there was
in his boast of being a most admirable shot.
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