ain be seen for the remainder of the day.
That the combat was not quite devoid of peril was clear, by the fact
that several of the sailors were always armed, some with staves, others
with cutlasses, since, in the event of a bite, and blood flowing,
nothing but immediate and prompt aid could save the boy from being
devoured. This he knew well, and the exercises were always discontinued
whenever the slightest cut, or even a scratch, existed in any part
of his person. Each day seemed to heighten the excitement of these
exhibitions; for, as Jarasch became more skilful in his defence, so did
the whelps in the mode of attack; besides that, their growth advanced
with incredible rapidity, and soon threatened to make the amusement no
longer practicable. This display over, Sir Dudley played at chess with
Halkett, while I, seated behind him, read aloud some book,--usually
one of voyages and travels. In the afternoon he went below, and studied
works in some foreign language of which he appeared most eager to
acquire a knowledge, and I was then ordered to copy out into a book
various extracts of different routes in all parts of the world:
sometimes, the mode of crossing a Syrian desert; now the shortest and
safest way through the wild regions on the shores of the Adriatic. At
one time the theme would be the steppes of Tartary or the snowy plains
of the Ukraine; at another, the dangerous passes of the Cordilleras or
the hunting-grounds of the Mandaus. What delightful hours were these to
me; how full of the very highest interest! The wildest adventures were
here united with narratives of real events and people, presenting human
life in aspects the strangest and most varied. How different from my old
clerkship with my father, with the interminable string of bastard and
broken law Latin! I believe that in all my after-life, fortunate as it
has been in so many respects, I have never passed hours more happy than
these were.

In recompense for my secretarial functions, I was free of the middle
watch; so that, instead of turning into my berth at sundown to snatch
some sleep before midnight, I could lounge about at will,--sometimes
dropping into the steerage to listen to some seaman's "yarn" of storm
and shipwreck, but far oftener, book in hand, taking a lesson in French
from the old cook, for which I paid him in being "aide-de-cuisine;" or,
with more hardy industry, assisting our fat German mate to polish up
his Regensburg pistols, by which