as a finished seaman; bold as a
lion; and knew exactly how to deal with a crew, encouraging those who
did their duty, while the idle skulkers found in him a terrible enemy.

Our late second mate--a man named Penrose, who had only been one voyage
with us--had not given the skipper satisfaction; he had proved to be
untrustworthy, overbearing, obstinate, unscrupulous, and altogether
objectionable, so I was not at all surprised to find that he had been
passed over; but it was a surprise, and a most agreeable one, too, to
learn that the captain had recommended me in place of him. It was a
responsible post, more so even than that of second mate in an ordinary
trader; but I had no fear of myself, and was quite determined to leave
nothing undone to justify "the old man's" recommendation.

Thus pondering, I soon found myself at home. Truth compels me to admit
that I was greatly disappointed with the reception that my good news met
with at the hands of Aunt Sophie and Dora. Instead of congratulating me
they wept! wept because I was so soon to leave them again, and because
of the dangerous character of my new berth! They declared their
conviction that I should be killed by the first enemy that we might
happen to fall in with; or, if I were fortunate enough to escape death,
that I should be brought home to them a miserable, helpless cripple,
minus a leg and arm or two, and all that Uncle Jack and I could say
failed to shake that conviction. Dora even went so far as to endeavour
to coax me to decline the berth; and only desisted upon my
representation that, were I so foolish as to do so, I should inevitably
be snapped up by the press-gang. That, and the indisputable fact--which
they appeared to have forgotten--that there were at least a dozen men in
Weymouth alone who had gone through the whole of the last war without
receiving so much as a scratch, brought them to regard the matter
somewhat more resignedly; and at length, when they had all but cried
themselves blind, Uncle Jack's cheery and sanguine arguments began to
tell upon them so effectually, that they dried their tears and announced
their determination to hope for the best.

Strange to say, although I had been at home six days, I had hitherto
been so busy, running about with Dora and calling upon a rather numerous
circle of friends that, up to the time of receiving Mr White's offer, I
had not found time to do more than just become aware of the fact that
Mr Joe Martin