pen
the admiral had rigged up for her on the starboard side of the main
deck, forrud; but on the gunner objecting to the mess the animal made
there, she was then shifted to the port side, in the middle of the mess
deck of the foretopmen. Here, too, she was found such a nuisance that
the hands in a very short time determined to get rid of her as quickly
as they could, either by fair means or foul; and, of course, they
managed this right enough. Let sailors alone for that!"

"But, how did they manage it, sir?" asked Tommy Mills, who appeared to
take as much interest in the narrative as myself. "Did they kill her,
or chuck her overboard?"

"They did neither directly; but, indirectly, I may say they did both,"
answered Mr Jones, enigmatically, smiling and pulling his long whiskers
caressingly through his fingers, as if particularly proud of these
hirsute adornments. "The fact was, the unprincipled scoundrels gave her
alternately buckets full of dry biscuit-dust and water which so inflated
the poor beast that she became the size of a balloon in less than a
week; and, if she had not through this been suffocated, she would of
course have burst from the `abnormal expansion!' That is how our
doctor, old Nettleby, the same we've got on board here now, described it
to the admiral when he was sent to inspect the cow, when the butcher
reported her dead."

"What did the admiral say, sir, when he heard this?"

"Oh, he stormed and let fly a volley of picturesque language," replied
Mr Jones to this inquiry of mine; "but what could he do? `Throw her
out of the bow port,' he said to the gunner, who pitched a yarn about it
being the foretopmen who had done the fell deed. `I don't know whether
its your foretopmen or maintop-men that are to be blamed for it, and I
don't care; but, you've stopped my milk between you, and I'm hanged if I
don't stop your grog!'"

"And did he, sir?" asked little Tom Mills. "Did he stop their grog for
it?"

"No," replied Mr Jones. "He was too good-natured an old chap for
that."

"More than you were half-an-hour ago," observed Mr Stormcock,
sarcastically, rising up from his recumbent position. "You didn't think
of the fellows coming down from their watch on deck, when you drained
off the last remains of the milk, eh? Yes, my joker, you left this
cheeky youngster here to go without any in his tea, making him think of
home and his mammy! yes, all through your selfishness."

"Now, really, Storm