24th May, Morning - Deck

"Ha, ha. try that N' you'll see what a feisty little beast I can become, my friend." He said that with confidence and pride. ""..so's.. yes, it is nice to write your name, but you know what. If you promise ter actually practice you will, and I promise you that, be able to write much more than just a name on a piece of paper." He grinned. "You might well become a writer, after that! Or.. burn books in loathing." He laughed softly and held his hand out to take his quill. "Now.. tell me.. would you like to learn to write words first.. or know the letters with which to write them?"

"Feisty? I don't doubt it, you young scamp." He grinned. "You'm a right one, you are, Mathew, mate." He looked down at the piece of paper again. "Dunno that I'll be a writer, not like that. Might learn enough to be able to write rosters an' stuff, which is one of the things a Corp'ral does." He thought. "You said you'd teach me how to write 'Private' an' 'Marine', so would you show me them, please? An' then you can show me the other letters after."

"Alright. So Private and Marine. " He smiled and took the quill. P..this is the first letter of the word private. " He murmured: "..you already know it.. so I'll have you write that and you tell me what the second letter is, because yes.. you know that one already too." He smiled brightly. "And then when you write them both, I'll show you how to write I.. which I think is not the letter you know yet but it's rather important as it can even stand alone. Not all letters can do that and make sense." He held the quill back finding himself silly for taking it in the first place. There were two letters he needn't yet write.

"You'll have to help me... you'm breakin' the words into sounds, which I ain't used to doin'. So... the first letter." He though for a moment. "Well, there ain't any in me Christian name that make that sound... so it's got to be in me last name... Must be this'n." He wrote 'P' very carefully, and looked up. "Is it?"

"Exactly so. It's a p." He smiled proudly that his pupil had found the right letter on his own. "See, that's pee. And.. " He chuckled softly. "This time you could write it big or small, depending if you were starting a sentence or so. But anyway. So we've got p, just as you've written it. What comes next? It's a sound like.... like when you are riding in a wagon and it goes over a very poor road and you try to talk." He hesitated. "Or.. if you imitate an animal's growling.. I think you make that sound too. It's .. I think it's not as soft as in your name this time. Come, give it a try!"

He had to think again. Who knew that all this writing made you think so much? He tried saying his name quietly, trying to work out which letter is might be, looking at what he'd already written to try to get the right letter for the sound he wanted.

"Is it... is it this'n?" he asked eventually, pointing to the 'r' in his first name. "Can't think what it might be, if it ain't," he added, somewhat apologetically.

"Well, yer don't need to think whether it's another one, because.." He nodded encouragingly and smiled. "It is indeed that one. It's an R. PR... as in private." He said again and motioned for the marine to write the letter down. "Now,.. see, once you've written that one, the next one is pretty easy. " He reached over and patted Thompson's shoulder lightly. "You're doing alright, George. N' even if you ain't sure, just try, suggest or such. I won't have yer in trouble if you make a mistake. "

He glanced at the paper and paused. "So.. anyway, when you've written the R.. the next one will be the I.. .it's a simple line that one. With a small speck at the top, unless.. it's The I.. as in me... where it would be like this." He made a motion to show each of the letters.

He wrote that letter down and watched de Guarde write the next letter invisibly on the deck planking, with the tip of his finger. "Like that?" he said, copying the motion with the quill, writing that letter next to the two he'd done so far. "And that's I? For... What starts with that? Looks like... looks like a boardin' pike, a bit. Only with a dot for the head of it."

"Hm.. well, when you say I.. .that's the letter you write. Like... I am Mathew. See. I, is all on it's own in a way a word.. and it represents the person who speaks. As fer other words that start with it. Ivy?... that's one. Imagination.. another.. hmm..interest... innocent. " He tapped his chest at the last word and laughed softly.

"All them words start like that, n' sure, it is a bit like that , yes." He glanced at the letter and how it was written, deciding that through the motion, Thompson followed quite well. "So.. we Have.. Pri.... we need. a V. " He reasoned and placed his hands together so that they joined at the wrist, and the fingers went appart at an angle. " V, looks like this. In a way.. if you look at yer crossbelts.. and stop at the middle.. they form a V above that. " He shifted his weight a bit on his legs. " It's used fer... well. .Very is one word that begins with it. Vacant. too... when it goes for your stares, when you have to guard. All vacant them." He chuckled. "Ah, and if you want to use it in t' word.. then love.. has it.. or...invitation too. Or..provoke."

He nodded. "Oh, right. Like this?" he said, writing an over-large and slightly wobbly V with the other letters. "Oops. Didn't mean to make it quite so big as that. Ain't used to the pen, see." He thought. "Would that be what starts off Vict'ry's name, then? Y'know, Adm'ral Nelson's ship at Trafalgar?"

"That! How could I have forgotten. Yes, yes. Victory.. as t' ship's name, or.. as well victory when you win." He did not want to confuse the marine by saying that although victory was written with one v, winning had two. Maybe he could've excused it as the sound of W was somewhat more round than the one of V, but when they were going step by step, he prefered to go and confuse at a later time.

"'zactly so. Victory as Adm'ral Nelson's ship. See, you're doin' real fine here." He grinned. Sure the V was a bit big, but he could ask him to write one again, which actually he did. "Let's try three v's.. one beside the other, jus' so you get t' feel for it and then we're of to another letter. This'un... well, it can also stand on it's own or begin or be in t' name. Trafalgar has three of them." He hesitated. "Maybe you could try figuring out which it is? T' Nelson's title also has two and even starts with it." He was proud of his pupil almost as much as if he had been achieving something grand himself.

"Ah.. and if we stopped only at Priv... we could say Privy ..and that's a whole 'nother word..though um.. not related at all to a private." He chuckled.

He blew on the half-written word to dry the ink before turning the sheet over. "Here, that's two new letters," he said, and dipped the quill again to write three I's on the back of the paper, and then three V's. "Here, I can't go figurin' out what letter it is next if I don't know what letter goes with that sound," he pointed out, turning the paper over again. "Though... Well, it's sort of flat-soundin'. At least, well, there's a sound flat sound in bits of Trafalgar. Dunno what it is at the end, like."

He shrugged, and looked back down at the wobbly black letters on the paper he was holding, before looking up with a grin. "Thanks for... fr learnin' me all this, Mathew," he said.

"Oh I meant that you tell me what sound I'm asking for... though, you're right. I'm a fool for assuming the letter would come as quick as the sound. Sorry. Here, t' letter looks like this." He took the quill and wrote it and as he did he made the sound as was used in the word private then realised that when one said private the letter didn't quite follow as it should. Now even with admiral the sound was somehow connected with the others. He furrowed his brows and shrugged. " It's just how it has to be written I guess." He finally admitted defeat.

"It's A. ....A for admiral, and for adventure, and .. for and too." He smiled. " N'. fer..Average or avenge, or.. advice which you give plenty. Or...All. Admirable is also starting with an a.. and... a.. well you say an apple. Both are like that. Either way, it looks like this." He pointed at the letter written." And the big A , like this." He added the other. "Oh.. and Andrew has an A too. Andrew Shepherd." He nodded softly.

His smile turned to look more fond as Thompson thanked him. "Is alright. You're going to need it sometime maybe, and you'll have an easier time writing home." He added glancing at the paper. "So...this is my gift fer you."

"You ain't a fool. You just ain't learned anyone else to read, an' you learned how years ago anyway," the Marine said. He studied the two letters the lad had written. "They don't look the same sort of letter," he said doubtfully. "They'm diff'rent shapes. Howsomever, if you say they are, they must be, I s'pose. Which of 'em do I put in me word, though?"

"Is always a small letter when you're writing it in t' middle of the word, or t' sentence an' it ain't a name. T' rule goes.. as long as it don't start the sentence, the letter will be small. Now.. only if it tells you of a name of a person, firs' or surname... or of a place.. or such, does it go big. Like...you'd write George Thompson both letters starting t' word big. But you'd never write a letter like a p in your name big. Not unless you were named summat starting with it. That make sense?"

He smiled and pointed to the smaller one then." You write this one in the word thus. N' t' next one you do know again." He hesitated and lowered his gaze." You mus' be right. I've never learn.. taught someone else how to read. So I'll ask yer fer patience, too."

He carefully wrote an 'a' after the 'v'. "I know the next one? You sure?" he said, frowning a little. "I don't think I say it quite the same as you do. You pronounce it... a bit posh, like. At least, the officers do."

Thompson himself generally dropped the 't' and 'd' from the middle and ends of words, after all.

"No. Well I'm sure you know t' sound, though now that I think of it, you know only one version of the letter, and here I require you to write the other. So give me a moment." He looked to concentrate on what he meant to say for once, seeing how something so natural as letters were so hard to explain to a person just learning them. "So.. lessee.. Private. The way I say it, what do you hear , the sound? N' t' letter of which the sound you won't hear is the same as in George. The very same letter you miss out on saying. That one comes after the letter I'm looking for. It's in your name. N' you've learnt one version of it. So which do you think it is then?"

He looked at the marine curiously, growing to like the challenge that the teaching brought. It wasn't easy, not even for him, but it was fun and it was something which would probably have benefited them both.

"The way you say it, it finishes the same way me last name starts. The one that looks like a mast an' yard... T, I think you said it was called." He frowned a little in confusion. "There's another letter after that? That don't make much sense, that don't."

"Yes, that's the one. the T. Though while where it started in your last name it was big here.." He drew the small t in a proper way and smiled. "Here you shall have a small sort, like this."

He reached out and patted Thompson's shoulder. "..It doesn't make sense, no.. but think of it like George... you don't say t' e at the end of your name, or not even the first e.. in the middle neh? Yet we still had to write it. I don't remember if there's a rule for it, but just try to remember it in the word. Like that. Private..."

He looked more thoughtful, trying to remember if perhaps there was something that was similar to all the words which had a silent e, that might give reason why they had it, and yet one did not speak it. " Hm, I think it's because...well, it usually changes the word into sounding somewhat longer. Like... mad.. or made. . or.. uh.. rid... and ride. ..or..bit.. bite." He wasn't quite sure, but all those words did have silent e's and all did change because of it: "... just, we'll start with you remembering how to write a certain word, alright. And then as we go , you just go n' try to write it by feeling of how you think it should be."

"All right," Thompson said and wrote the new shape de Guarde had shown him for the letter T, then followed it with a carefully drawn E.

"Um... would you write out all the letters? With... with both of their shapes, for me to see?" he asked, trying to see how the word he'd written could sound like the word he knew.

"That's very good. You've got private in whole now." He nodded and grinned at Thompson's request. That would've of course made sense, and he'd been considering it earlier, but kept on falling back to the word rather than the need of the letters.

"All of them right?" He said but did not wait for Thompson to answer before he took his quill and began to write. A was first, since it was the one that started the alphabet anyway. He took a different paper just for the letters and on it he wrote both forms of each. First the big, and then the small. A, E, G, H, I , M, N, O, P, R, S and T. " Think that's all, isn't it?"

He looked at the bit of paper. "I'll have you have this too, alright. It might help you whenever you need to look back on t' letters you've learnt, n' we will add more as we progress so as in t' end you'll have all letters possible that you need. " He left places between the letters and marked the spaces only with commas.

"N'.. when a letter is learnt I'll have it written in the proper spot." He pointed to the empty slots.

"Now.. shall we have you write the word private once and then proceed to the word.. marine? Is one you can actually write with all them letters that you know already now!"

"Here, you forgot that one," he said, pointing to the V on the back of his piece of paper. He blinked at the challenge de Guarde had set him. Copying a word that was written in front of him was easy enough, but trying to find the right letters for one he'd never seen written... that could be tricky.

He looked up once he'd finished writing 'Private' out again, trying to keep the letters more of the same size this time, though he frowned as he looked at the paper. Maybe it would be easier on a slate; all his words had ended up sloping somehow up the paper a bit. It was only a scrap, he reasoned, and he could always buy some from the purser himself.

"All right, then. Marine," he said. "Am I startin' it with a big letter, or a small one? 'Cause it's... Well, it's a mmm sort of sound... so it's got to be, um, that one." He pointed at the two M's the lad had written out. "I got the small one in me name," he said, and showed where he'd written it earlier. "See?"

"Ah, thank you. You're paying attention alright." The boy grinned and then added innocently. "Of course, I was only testing you to see if you remembered all the letters that you know. You've passed." In truth, he'd forgotten and now quickly added the big and the small V just as he had the others. He looked at the list and nodded. It was pretty good and as much in line as he could've hoped for.

Glancing at the word private of the Marine he noticed that the word began to shift in one direction. Well, that could be remedied with practice or with having another paper placed under it, to hold the line. "Excellent! Yes it's the M sound. Yes, yes excellent." He grinned brightly as he saw him point out which was M and where in his name he had it. Thompson had proved he remembered the letter very well. He wasn't just making a guess. Well, he might've used some logic and the feeling for the choice of the letter, but he certainly knew it now. "Indeed, M! You can start with the big one this time.

"Write it and then tell me what's next." He encouraged the marine and just so it might help George he pronounced the word again.

He'd got it right. He grinned proudly. It might only be a small thing, but it didn't feel as though it was, not to him. He carefully wrote an M next to the end of the previous word, careful to leave a space between them - he remembered seeing spaces between words on the recruitment posters around Chatham, and there was a space between his two names, when they were written down.

"Marine," he said, listening to the sound of the word. "Um. Think it's that one next," he said, and pointed to the little 'a'.

"Zactly so!" The boy exclaimed proudly and grinned. Thompson was doing it all on his own now. He just taught him the letters that matched the sounds, and he was picking all the right ones. It made the young former midshipman feel very accomplished.

"So, write it down. Ma.. that's how far you have it, and.. and what's next now?" He nudged the marine, but careful not to do it when he was writing. He didn't want him to smear his paper. "If you said ma.. for mother.. you'd write it the same, though it would be very informal. Just if you wrote it, the m would be small. Mind, mother would be much better, more formal n' polite."