t as if they was pickles same as
you see in the grocers' shops in Plymouth town."

"Well, the same as you saw uncle and me do that day during the calm?"

"Yes, sir, just like that, only yours as you did were small shop and
ours was like big warehouse, though I don't think our doctor did much
good with them, because so many of them used to go bad, and our cook and
his mate used to have to throw no end away and wash the bottles."

"Ah, ours won't go bad," said Rodd confidently. "My uncle will preserve
them differently to that."

"Oh, yes, I suppose so, sir. You see, we've all come out this time
ready for the job; our officers on the _Prince George_ only did their
bit just for a day or two's holiday like, and our job was to look after
the mounseers' cruisers, not to catch tittlebats and winkles, and it
wasn't so very long after that we was at it hammer and tongs with a big
French frigate, making work for the doctor of a precious different kind,
and for our ship's carpenters too. Different sort of nat'ral history
that was, sir, I can tell you, for we lost nineteen of our men and had a
lot wounded; but we took the frigate, and carried her safe into
Portsmouth Harbour."

"Ah!" cried Rodd softly, as his eyes flashed at the thoughts of the
deeds of naval daring carried out by our men-of-war. "I wish I'd been
there!"

"You do, sir?" said Joe. "Mean it?"

"Mean it? Of course! There, don't look at me like that. I wasn't
thinking of being a man, but a reefer--one of those middies that we used
to see at Plymouth."

"Ah, it's all very fine, sir," said Joe, shaking his head, "and it
sounds very nice about firing broadsides and then getting orders to
board when the two big men-of-war get the grappling-irons on board and
you have to follow your officers, scrambling with your cutlass in your
hand out of the chains from your ship into the enemy's; and all the time
there's the roaring of the guns and the popping away of the marines up
in the tops, and the men cheering as your officers lead them on. It's a
very different thing, sir, to what you think, and so I can tell you."

"Why, Joe," cried Rodd, almost maliciously, "you talk as if you felt
afraid!"

"Afraid, sir?" said the man, quietly and thoughtfully. "No, sir. No,
sir; I never felt afraid, and I never knowed one of my messmates as said
he was."

"Oh no, of course they wouldn't say so," cried Rodd, laughing.

"No, sir, that's right. But I aren't bragging, si