The Ship's Boy

Sir Frederick found 28 men aboard his ship the first day. The second day, searching for the supply records that his men had hid (lest he find out how much they'd spent on whisky) he discovered a boy. The boy was the ship's boy. Many ships had them, boys who were either ragamuffins come off the streets or who were related to a crew member. They mended ropes and washed dishes and scrubbed floors and in general did whatever the sailors needed. They served the captain, as well, if he wanted a servant.
In the month and a half between the time the crew was commissioned and the time Sir Frederick arrived, the men had sat idly aboard the ship during the day, and went not-so-idly off into the city when night fell. It was one of these nights, returning home from a pub, that a few of them encountered the ship's boy. He came running towards them. It was dark, and they were drunk, and the boy narrowly missed Ponsby as he shot past them. A moment later a man emerged from the doorway in front of them and glared into the night. "You lot! Didja see a boy run that way?"
They slurred and mumbled and giggled a general affirmation. "I'll tan the bloody twit. Where the hell did he go?" They had no idea. The man pushed through the rabble and disapeared down the empty alleyway. The sailors started forward again. Suddenly a small voice adjacent to Ponsby's elbow inquired, "Are you sailors?" "Eh? How did you get here? I saw you run off!" "The doorway. Are you sailors?"
"No, soldiers," Ponsby said and they all laughed. They were sailors.
"Can I join you?"
"And do what?"
"Whatever you do."
They laughed madly. "I can drink. I once had a pint of ale." Raucous laughter. But they were too drunk, or perhaps they found him too funny, to swat him away. And he certainly wasn't leaving the cover of their company. The next morning they found him getting water to boil and decided that he would be a useful blighter to have around, and so he stayed.
When Sir Frederick came everything changed. The men had to work, scrubbing the whole place and checking for leaks and going to bed at funny hours in preperation for shifts once they went to sea.
Sir Frederick discovered the ship's boy sleeping in beetween two barrels in the store room.
He simply looked at the bruises on the boy's shin and asked him his name. Kit, the boy told him, though his mother had called him Christopher.
From then on the boy slept in Sir Frederick's room. He was given a bath, new clothes, and (this was the biggest change of all) a bedtime. He had to work--no mistake. He got calluses from the ropes and once he burned himself making supper. But the bruises went away and did not return, and Sir Frederick told him he was a good worker. He felt proud for the first time in his young life.