first lieutenant and the officer of the
watch standing near.

Presently there came up from the after cabin hatchway a fine, handsome
man, in the very prime of life, in cocked hat, full-dress coat, a pair
of gleaming epaulets, sword by his hip, and his nether limbs cased in
white knee-breeches, silk stockings, and pumps. The one who followed him
was apparently a much older man, with grizzled locks, a dark, stern
face, and without epaulets. The first raised his hat as he stepped on
the quarter-deck--not a thread of silver was seen in his dark hair--and
then both bowed to the officers, who saluted them as they moved toward
the gangway. The boatswain piped, the marines presented arms, the drum
gave three quick rolls, and the commodore went over the gangway,
preceded by his companion.

-----

[*] This was written before the "Pay Bill" was passed.

CHAPTER XXX.

OLD FRIENDS.

"What though when storms our bark assail,
The needle trembling veers,
When night adds horror to the gale,
And not a star appears?
True to the pole as I to thee,
It faithful still will prove--
An emblem dear of constancy,
And of a sailor's love."

The barge left the side of the frigate, a broad blue pennant with white
stars on a staff at her bow, with fourteen handsome sailors to man her,
all in clean white frocks and trowsers, with straw hats and flowing
black ribbons around them, on which was stamped in gold letters,
"Monongahela."

The double bank of white ash oars flashed in the rippling waves of the
harbor as the barge was urged over the water, the current seething and
buzzing under her bows, and bubbling into her wake as she flew on toward
the town. In a mahogany box at the stern sat a bushy-whiskered coxswain,
whose body swayed to the stroke of the oars, while his hand grasped the
brass tiller as he steered amid the shipping. The commodore had settled
himself down under the boat's awning on the snow-white covered cushions
in the stern-sheets, and, with one foot resting on the elegant ash
grating beneath, he began to talk to the grave gentleman who sat
opposite to him.

"It is many a long year since I last visited this superb harbor, but I
remember it as if it were yesterday. You never were here before, I
think? No? Well, if any of the old set I once knew, when I was first
lieutenant of the old 'Scourge,' are yet alive, we shall have a pleasant
time!"

"One fine fellow," went on th