f confidence.

At this there was a general roar of laughter.

"According to your notion all the jollies are Towers," cried Nettleship,
when he regained his voice. "Why, Paddy, the muskets are all marked
with the name of the Tower of London, where the arms are stored before
they are served out."

"Shure how should I know anything about the Tower of London?" I asked.
"I'm after thinking it's a poor place compared with Castle Ballinahone."

This remark produced another roar of laughter from my messmates.

"What are you after laughing at? I exclaimed. If any of you will
honour us with a visit at Castle Ballinahone, you'll be able to compare
the two places, and my father and mother, and brothers and sisters, will
be mighty plaised to see you."

The invitation was at once accepted by all hands, though for the present
my family were pretty safe from the chances of an inundation of nautical
heroes.

"And what sort of girls are your sisters?" asked Sims, who, I had
discovered, was always ready for some impudence.

"Shure they're Irish young ladies, and that's all I intend to say about
them," I answered, giving him a look which made him hold his tongue.

Still, in spite of the bantering I received, I got on wonderfully well
with my new messmates; and though I had a fight now and then, I
generally, being older than many of them, and stronger than others who
had been some time at sea, came off victorious; and as I was always
ready to befriend, and never bullied, my weaker messmates, I was on very
good terms with all of them.

Tom Pim took a liking to me from the first, and though he didn't require
my protection, I felt ready to afford it him on all occasions. He was
sometimes quizzed by Sims and others for his small size. "I don't mind
it," he answered. "Though I'm little, I'm good. If I've a chance, I'll
do something to show what's in me." The chance came sooner than he
expected. There were a good many raw hands lately entered, Larry among
others. From the first he showed no fear of going aloft, looking upon
the business much as he would have done climbing a high tree; but how
the ropes were rove, and what were their uses, he naturally had no
conception. "Is it to the end of them long boughs there I've got to go,
Misther Terence?" he asked the first time he was ordered aloft, looking
up at the yards as he encountered me, I having been sent forward with an
order to the third lieutenant.

"There's no doubt a