he first-lieutenant, "to carry on
the duty without support."

This oracular observation, which, from the relative forms of the two
parties, descended as it were from above, was replied to by the captain
with a "Very true."

"Then, sir, I presume you will not object to my putting that man in the
report for punishment?"

"I'll think about it, Mr Markitall." This, with Captain Plumbton, was
as much as to say, No.

"The young gentlemen, sir, I am sorry to say, are very troublesome."

"Boys always are," replied the captain.

"Yes sir: but the duty must be carried on, and I cannot do without
them."

"Very true--midshipmen are very useful."

"But I am sorry to say, sir, that they are not. Now sir, there's Mr
Templemore; I can do nothing with him--he does nothing but laugh."

"Laugh!--Mr Markitall, does he laugh at you?"

"Not exactly, sir; but he laughs at everything. If I send him to the
mast-head, he goes up laughing; if I call him down, he comes down
laughing; if I find fault with him, he laughs the next minute: in fact,
sir, he does nothing but laugh. I should particularly wish, sir, that
you would speak to him, and see if any interference on your part--"

"Would make him cry--eh? better to laugh than cry in this world. Does
he never cry, Mr Markitall?"

"Yes, sir, and very unseasonably. The other day, you may recollect,
when you punished Wilson the marine, whom I appointed to take care of
his chest and hammock, he was crying the whole time; almost tantamount--
at least an indirect species of mutiny on his part, as it implied--"

"That the boy was sorry that his servant was punished; I never flog a
man but I'm sorry myself, Mr Markitall."

"Well, I do not press the question of his crying--that I might look
over; but his laughing, sir, I must beg that you will take notice of
that. Here he is, sir, coming up the hatchway. Mr Templemore, the
captain wishes to speak to you."

Now the captain did not wish to speak to him, but, forced upon him as it
was by the first-lieutenant, he could do no less. So Mr Templemore
touched his hat, and stood before the captain, we regret to say, with
such a good-humoured, sly, confiding smirk on his countenance, as at
once established the proof of the accusation, and the enormity of the
offence.

"So, sir," said Captain Plumbton, stopping in his perambulation, and
squaring his shoulders still more, "I find that you laugh at the
first-lieutenant."

"I, sir?" replie