d the _Lily_. For some neglect of duty his
leave had been stopped, and, fortunately for himself, he was not allowed
to go on shore at Port Royal when the ship put in there. Tom, however,
still avoided Rayner, who had no opportunity, unless he expressly sent
to speak to him, to give him a word of advice or encouragement.

Jack, who was really the best friend he had in the ship, did his utmost
to keep him out of mischief.

"It's all very fine for you to talk that way," answered Tom, when one
day Jack had been giving him a lecture. "You got rated as an able
seaman, and now have been made captain of the mizen-top, too, and will,
I suppose, before long, get another step; and here am I sticking where I
was. It's no fault of mine, that I can see. I'll cut and run if I have
the chance, for I cannot bear to see others placed over my head, as you
and Bill Rayner have been, and to see him walking the quarter-deck in a
brand new uniform, and talking to the officers as friendly and easy as
if he had been born among them, while I, a gentleman's son, remain a
foremast man, with every chance of being one to the end of my days."

"There's no use grumbling, Tom; all you have to think about is to do
your duty with smartness, keep sober, and to avoid doing anything wrong,
and with your education, which I wish I had, you are sure to get on."

There is an old saying that it is useless to try and make a silk purse
out of a sow's ear. It is to be seen whether Tom Fletcher was like the
sow's ear.

Soon after the _Lily_ left Jamaica she fell in with the _Ariel_. As a
calm came on while they were in company, the officers of the two ships
paid visits to each other. Rayner, recollecting that Mary Crofton's
brother Oliver was serving in her, got leave to go on board, for the
purpose of making his acquaintance. He was much disappointed, on
inquiring for him, to learn that he had been sent away a few days
before, in charge of a prize, a brig called the _Clerie_, with orders to
take her to Jamaica.

"She ought to have arrived before you left there," observed the
midshipman who told him this.

"How provoking that I should have missed him, though I do not think any
such vessel came in while we were there," answered Rayner. "His mother
and sister are great friends of mine."

"They must be nice people if they are like him, for Oliver Crofton is a
capital fellow. He is as kind-hearted and even-tempered as he is brave
and good-looking, an