aps I know more about a ship than you think of."

"You! what should you know about a ship, I should like to know?"
exclaimed the midshipman, contemptuously.

"Why, I know how to gammon a bowsprit," I replied, looking at him very
hard. "I can work a Turk's-head, make a lizard, or mouse a stay--can't
I, Larry?" I asked, turning to the old sailor. "And as for steering,
I've steered round Kilkee Bay scores of times, before you knew how to
handle an oar, I'll be bound--haven't I, Larry?"

The old man, thus appealed to, looked up and spoke. "Faith, you may
well say that same, Master Neil; and proud am I to have taught you. And
I'll just tell you, young gentlemen, I'll lay a gold guinea that Master
D'Arcy here would get the rigging over the mastheads of a ship, and fit
her for sea, while either of you were looking at them, and thinking how
you were to sway up the topmasts. No offence, you know; but as for
gammoning--I don't think any one would beat you there."

Several of the midshipmen muttered murmurs of applause at what Larry and
I had said, and in a very short time we were all excellent friends, and
as intimate as if we were shipmates together. They at once respected
him, for they could not help recognising him as a true sailor; and they
also saw that, young and inexperienced as I appeared, I was not quite as
green as they had at first supposed. And we all parted excellent
friends.

We had been waiting some time at the "Star and Garter," and there were
no signs of the _Serpent_, and from the information Larry gained from
those who were likely to know, he was led to believe that several days
more might elapse before her return; so he proposed that we should look
out for lodgings, as more economical, and altogether pleasanter. I
willingly agreed to his plan, so out we set in search of them. We saw
several which did not suit us. At last we went to Southsea, which we
agreed would be more airy and pleasant; and seeing a bill up at a very
neat little house, we knocked at the door, and were admitted. There was
a nice sitting-room and bed-room, and a small room which Larry said
would do for him. The landlady, who was a pleasant-looking, buxom dame,
asked only fifteen shillings a week, including doing for us; so we
agreed to take it. By some chance we did not inquire her name.

"Good-bye, Missis," said Larry. "I'll send the young gentleman's traps
here in half an hour, and leave him mean time as security. I sup