II.

By the Industrial Schools Act of 1866, 29 & 30 Vict. c. 118, it is
ordained that any youngster apparently under the age of fourteen
found begging, or wandering destitute, or consorting with thieves, or
obstinately playing truant from school, or guilty of being neglected
by his parents, or of defying his parents, or of having a parent who
has incurred a sentence of penal servitude--may by any two justices
be committed to a certified Industrial School, there to be detained
until he reaches the age of sixteen, or for a shorter term if the
Justices shall so direct. Such an Industrial School was the
ex-battleship _Egeria_.

She had carried seventy-four guns in her time; and though gunless now
and jury-masted, was redolent still of the Nelson period from her
white-and-gold figure-head to the beautiful stern galleries which
Commander Headworthy had adorned with window-boxes of Henry Jacoby
geraniums. The Committee in the first flush of funds had spared no
pains to reproduce the right atmosphere, and in that atmosphere
Commander Headworthy laudably endeavoured to train up his crew of
graceless urchins, and to pass them out at sixteen, preferably into
the Navy or the Merchant Service, but at any rate as decent members
of society. Nor were the boys' nautical experiences entirely
stationary, since a wealthy sympathiser (lately deceased) had
bequeathed his fine brigantine yacht to serve the ship as a tender
and take a few score of the elder or more privileged lads on an
annual summer cruise, that they might learn something of practical
seamanship.

The yacht--by name the _Swallow_--an old but shapely craft of some