d. Behind the lecturer, in glass cases, are
many beautiful models for teaching the cadets all about machines, light,
heat, sound, magnetism, and electricity, such as would make many boys
long to pull them about for a while, and see how they work.

We might go and learn how the sails are set and furled from one of these
fine models of ships, or how anchors and cables are managed from
another.

In this little room, called the "Sick Bay," we find some poor fellows
who have to lie in bed. One has caught a cold, and one has cut his foot
in bathing. Fortunately, the Sick Bay is most frequently empty, for the
_Britannia_ life is a very healthy one.

[Illustration]

There are eight studies like the one where we saw the naval instructor
teaching navigation, four in each ship. In the _Hindostan_ we find two
Frenchmen teaching their classes how to read and write French, and two
drawing studies, in one of which they are taught to draw models with the
aid of ruler and compasses. In the other they are learning the use of
paints and paint-brushes. It is so useful for a young boy to be able to
make sketches in water colours of all the pretty places he goes to; some
of them are really quite clever at it before they leave.

We hear a noise of marching about; the bell is struck four times; ten
o'clock. The French classes are only an hour long, and boys are changing
class-rooms.

[Illustration: 1. THE CADETS' BOAT-HOUSE AND BOATS; 2. THE _BRITANNIA_
AND _HINDOSTAN_. (_See pp. 143, 146._)]

At five minutes to eleven there is a bugle-call, followed by a
hurry-scurry; the whole ship is alive at once. There is an interval of a
quarter of an hour. Leap-frog in the open air on the upper deck; running
after one another till they get out of breath; fun of all sorts
immediately becomes the order of the day, and certainly this quarter of
an hour is right well spent in throwing off the evil effects of working
too hard.

It is too soon interrupted by the warning bugle. And the whole ship
sinks into silence as the cadets go back to their studies; those who
have been at seamanship or drawing going to the harder work of
mathematics.

At one o'clock study is over for the morning, and a good hard morning's
work it has been for the boys, since a quarter past seven, with a break
for breakfast, and an interval for play.

On half-holidays, work is over at twelve, and we shall soon see how they
spend their half-holidays. Bugle--"wash hands," and th