d as meek
as mice.

But, as I trotted away at a sign of dismissal from him to seek the
boatswain on the forecastle, where I knew his especial domain lay, I
heard Commander Nesbitt say in an undertone to one of the lieutenants
who just then stepped down from the poop to join him. "That's a sharp
lad, Cheffinch, and one who'll make his mark, if I'm not mistaken. He's
quite a contrast to the sucking Nelsons they generally send us from the
training-ship, who don't, as a rule, know a goose from a gridiron!"

What the lieutenant said in reply to this complimentary allusion to my
whilom comrades of the _Illustrious_, and the system of instruction
pursued on board that vessel, I cannot tell, for I was out of earshot,
hastening forward as speedily as I could, so as to deserve the good
opinion the commander seemed to have already formed of me.

This, I may here add, I succeeded in doing; for, I made my reappearance
on the quarter-deck in a brace of shakes, with the boatswain in person
and a party of topmen bringing aft the respective "purchases" the
commander had specified--blocks and strops and running gear of all
sorts, all ready for instant service.

"Mr Hawser," said Commander Nesbitt to the boatswain as we got near,
giving me a kindly nod to express his approval of my having carried out
his orders so promptly, "I must have that main-tops'l yard up before you
pipe to dinner."

"Very good, sir," replied the warrant officer, touching his cap again,
as he had done when approaching the sacred precincts of the
quarter-deck. "The spar, sir, is fitted all right for going up; but,
sir, it's getting on now for Seven Bells."

"I don't care what the time is, bosun; it's got to be done, and that's
the long and the short of it," retorted the commander sharply, flashing
his eyes in a way that showed he was not to be put off when he had once
made up his mind. "Maintop, there!"

"Ay, ay, sir," answered the captain of the top, looking over the rail
instantly and leaving off the work of fitting the upper standing
rigging, on which he and his men were engaged when this vigorous hail
reached the top, thundered out with all the power of the commander's
lungs. "Want me down, sir?"

"Down? No, my man; but lower a whip at once for the sail burton, and
you can lower the tops'l tye as well. I'm going to send up the yard at
once!"

"Ay, ay, sir."

Promptitude begets like promptness.

Before you could say "Jack Robinson," the whip