r _Blenny_, just commissioned
by Commander Hemming, well-known, as the papers stated, for his
gallantry on the coast of Africa, and on every occasion when he had an
opportunity of displaying it. The papers spoke truly, and well had our
old friend won his present rank. Both the frigate and the brig were
destined, it was supposed, for the China seas; but this was not known to
a certainty. The _Dugong_ had been commissioned by Captain Grant, Alick
Murray's old commander in the _Archer_, who had some short time before
received his post rank. Captain Lascelles, with whom the three
midshipmen first went to sea, commanded at this time a line-of-battle
ship on the Indian station.

Who has not heard of the _Blue Posts_ at Portsmouth, to be found not far
from the landing-place known as the Point, now sadly encroached on by
new batteries and a broad wooden pier?

One afternoon, at the time of which I am speaking, a cab stopped at the
door of that well-known inn, with a portmanteau outside, and a
cocked-hat case, a sword, a gun-case, and several other articles,
including a young naval officer inside. He nodded smilingly to the
waiter and boots, who came to get out his things, as to old
acquaintances, and then, having paid the cabman, entered the inn. No
sooner had he put his head into the coffee-room, than another young
officer, in the uniform of a mate or passed midshipman, jumped up, and,
seizing him by the hand, exclaimed--

"I am delighted to see you, my dear Jack. You've come to join the
_Dugong_, I hope."

"If you belong to her, Adair, I wish I was," answered Jack Rogers, for
he was the new-comer. "But I am not. The fact is, Hemming has got
command of the _Blenny_, and I applied and got appointed to her. It
can't be helped now. Any news of Murray? He wrote me word, some little
time ago, that he expected to get appointed to a ship. I wish that I
could have had him with me; but we three have been on the same station,
and mostly together all our lives, and we can scarcely expect the same
good fortune to continue."

"We tried to keep together, and we succeeded," answered Adair. "There's
nothing like trying, in my opinion."

"You are right there, old fellow; there isn't a doubt of it," exclaimed
Jack Rogers, who had been a little out of spirits, and inclined to take
a somewhat gloomy view of affairs in general.

No wonder, for he had just left as happy a home as any to be found in
Old England. It was a cold