ship in. He was so intent upon this business that he appeared not to
notice the movements of Bill and Tommy as they edged nervously towards
their bundles, and waited impatiently for the schooner to get alongside
the quay. Then he turned to the mate and burst into a loud laugh as the
couple, bending suddenly, snatched up their bundles, and, clambering up
the side ashore and took to their heels. The mate too, and a faint but
mirthless echo came from the other end of the schooner.

A DISCIPLINARIAN.

"There's no doubt about it," said the night watchman, "but what
dissipline's a very good thing, but it don't always act well. For
instance, I ain't allowed to smoke on this wharf, so when I want a pipe
I either 'ave to go over to the 'Queen's 'ed,' or sit in a lighter. If
I'm in the 'Queen's 'ed' I can't look arter the wharf, an' once when I
was sitting in a lighter smoking the chap come aboard an' cast off afore
I knew what he was doing, an' took me all the way to Greenwich. He said
he'd often played that trick on watchmen.

"The worst man for dissipline I ever shipped with was Cap'n Tasker, of
the _Lapwing_. He'd got it on the brain bad. He was a prim, clean-shaved
man except for a little side-whisker, an' always used to try an' look as
much like a naval officer as possible.

"I never 'ad no sort of idea what he was like when I jined the ship,
an' he was quite quiet and peaceable until we was out in the open water.
Then the cloven hoof showed itself, an' he kicked one o' the men for
coming on deck with a dirty face, an' though the man told him he never
did wash becos his skin was so delikit, he sent the bos'en to turn the
hose on him.

"The bos'en seemed to take a hand in everything. We used to do
everything by his whistle, it was never out of his mouth scarcely, and
I've known that man to dream of it o' nights, and sit up in his sleep
an' try an' blow his thumb. He whistled us to swab decks, whistled us to
grub, whistled us to every blessed thing.

"Though we didn't belong to any reg'ler line, we'd got a lot o'
passengers aboard, going to the Cape, an' they thought a deal o' the
skipper. There was one young leftenant aboard who said he reminded him
o' Nelson, an' him an' the skipper was as thick as two thieves. Nice
larky young chap he was, an' more than one o' the crew tried to drop
things on him from aloft when he wasn't looking.

"Every morning at ten we was inspected by the skipper, but that wasn't
enough