bears' to amuse their nephews."

The Indiarubber Man broke off and surveyed his messmates with a
whimsical grey eye. The majority were assimilating the contents of
illustrated weeklies over a fortnight old; two in opposite corners of
the settee were asleep with their caps tilted over their noses,
sleeping the sleep of profound exhaustion. One member of the mess was
amusing himself with a dice-box at the table, murmuring to himself as
he rattled and threw.

The Indiarubber Man, in no wise irritated at the general lack of
interest in his conversation, wriggled lower in his arm-chair till he
appeared to be resting on the flat of his shoulder-blades, with his
chin buried in the lappels of his monkey-jacket. "I maintain," his
amiable monologue continued, "that there's something rather touching
about the way they flap their arms about and hop backwards and
forwards, and 'span-bend' and agonise themselves with such unfailing
good humour--don't you think so, Pills?"

The Young Doctor gathered the dice again, knitting his brows. ". . .
Seventy-seven, seventy-eight--that's seventy-eight times I've thrown
these infernal dice without five aces turning up. And twenty-three
times before breakfast. How much is seventy-eight and twenty-three?
Three and eight's eleven, put down one and carry one--I beg pardon, I
wasn't listening to you. Did you ask me a question?"

"I was telling you about the sailors chucking stunts on the
quarter-deck."

"I don't want to hear about the sailors: they make me tired. There
isn't a sick man on board except one I've persuaded to malinger to keep
me out of mischief. They're the healthiest collection of human beings
I've ever met in my life."

"That's me," retorted the Indiarubber Man modestly. "_I_ am
responsible for their glowing health. They haven't been ashore
for--how long is it?"

"Ten years it feels like," said someone who was examining the pictorial
advertisements of an illustrated paper with absorbed interest.

"Quite. They haven't had a run ashore for ten years--ever since the
war started, in fact; and yet, thanks to the beneficial effects of
physical training, as laid down in the book of the words, and
administered by the underpaid Lieutenant for Physical Training Duties,
the Young Doctor is enabled to sit in the mess all day and see how
often he can throw five aces. In short, he becomes a world's worker."

"It's just _because_ they haven't been ashore for weeks and months,