He prefers a small vessel to
a large one, because he is not obliged to be so particular in his
dress--and looks for his lieutenancy whenever there shall be another
charity promotion. He is fond of soft bread, for his teeth are all
absent without leave; he prefers porter to any other liquor, but he can
drink his glass of grog, whether it be based upon rum, brandy, or the
liquor now before him.

[Illustration: _Lieutenant Appleboy._]

Mr. Smith is the name of that young gentleman whose jacket is so out at
the elbows; he has been intending to mend it these last two months, but
is too lazy to go to his chest for another. He has been turned out of
half the ships in the service for laziness; but he was born so--and
therefore it is not his fault. A revenue cutter suits him, she is half
her time hove-to; and he has no objection to boat-service, as he sits
down always in the stern-sheets, which is not fatiguing. Creeping for
tubs is his delight, as he gets over so little ground. He is fond of
grog, but there is some trouble in carrying the tumbler so often to his
mouth; so he looks at it, and lets it stand. He says little because he
is too lazy to speak. He has served more than _eight years_; but as for
passing--it has never come into his head. Such are the three persons who
are now sitting in the cabin of the revenue cutter, drinking hot
gin-toddy.

'Let me see, it was, I think, in ninety-three or ninety-four. Before you
were in the service, Tomkins----'

'Maybe, sir; it's so long ago since I entered, that I can't recollect
dates--but this I know, that my aunt died three days before.'

'Then the question is, When did your aunt die?'

'Oh! she died about a year after my uncle.'

'And when did your uncle die?'

'I'll be hanged if I know!'

'Then, d'ye see, you've no departure to work from. However, I think you
cannot have been in the service at that time. We were not quite so
particular about uniform as we are now.'

'Then I think the service was all the better for it. Nowadays, in your
crack ships, a mate has to go down in the hold or spirit-room, and after
whipping up fifty empty casks, and breaking out twenty full ones, he is
expected to come on quarter-deck as clean as if he was just come out of
a bandbox.'

'Well, there's plenty of water alongside, as far as the outward man
goes, and iron dust is soon brushed off. However, as you say, perhaps a
little too much is expected; at least, in five of the ships in whic