Land and Sea Tales for Boys and Girls

To all to whom this little book may come— Health for yourselves and those you hold most dear; Content abroad, and happiness at home, And—one grand secret in your private ear:— Nations have passed away and left no traces, And History gives the naked cause of it— One single, simple reason in all cases; They fell because their people were not fit.

Now, though your Body be mis-shapen, blind, Lame, feverish, lacking substance, power or skill, Certain it is that men can school the Mind To school the sickliest Body to her will— As many have done, whose glory blazes still Like mighty fires in meanest lanterns lit: Wherefore, we pray the crippled, weak and ill— Be fit—be fit! In mind at first be fit!

And, though your Spirit seem uncouth or small, Stubborn as clay or shifting as the sand, Strengthen the Body, and the Body shall Strengthen the Spirit till she take command; As a bold rider brings his horse in hand At the tall fence, with voice and heel and bit, And leaps while all the field are at a stand. Be fit—be fit! In body next be fit!

Nothing on earth—no arts, no gifts, nor graces— No fame, no wealth—outweighs the want of it. This is the Law which every law embraces— Be fit—be fit! In mind and body be fit!

The even heart that seldom slurs its beat— The cool head weighing what that heart desires— The measuring eye that guides the hands and feet— The Soul unbroken when the Body tires— These are the things our weary world requires Far more than superfluities of wit; Wherefore we pray you, sons of generous sires, Be fit—be fit! For Honour’s sake be fit.

There is one lesson at all Times and Places— One changeless Truth on all things changing writ, For boys and girls, men, women, nations, races— Be fit—be fit! And once again, be fit!

CONTENTS

PAGE Winning the Victoria Cross 1

The Way That He Took 27

An Unqualified Pilot 65

The Junk and the Dhow 84

His Gift 91

The Master-Cook 118

A Flight of Fact 123

“Stalky” 149

The Hour of the Angel 182

The Burning of the Sarah Sands 185

The Last Lap 199

The Parable of Boy Jones 203

A Departure 222

The Bold ’Prentice 227

The Nurses 246

The Son of His Father 251

An English School 291

A Counting-Out Song 319

Land and Sea Tales For Boys and Girls

WINNING THE VICTORIA CROSS

The history of the Victoria Cross has been told so often that it is only necessary to say that the Order was created by Queen Victoria on January 29th, 1856, in the year of the peace with Russia, when the new racing Cunard paddle-steamer Persia of three thousand tons was making thirteen knots an hour between England and America, and all the world wondered at the advance of civilization and progress.

Any officer of the English Army, Navy, Reserve or Volunteer forces, from a duke to a negro, can wear on his left breast the little ugly bronze Maltese cross with the crowned lion atop and the inscription “For Valour” below, if he has only “performed some signal act of valour” or devotion to his country “in the presence of the enemy.” Nothing else makes any difference; for it is explicitly laid down in the warrant that “neither rank, nor long service, nor wounds, nor any other circumstance whatsoever, save the merit of conspicuous bravery, shall be held to establish a sufficient claim to this Order.”