de lighter
thereby. On reaching the top of the flight of stairs, without stopping
to contemplate the height they had ascended, they turned to the right,
and took the way along the ramparts towards Fort Saint Elmo. There
seemed not to have been the slightest necessity for their hurry, as they
appeared to have come on shore simply to take a walk, for they now
slackened their pace, and proceeded on side by side.

"Well, I'm so glad, Duff, that you have joined us," exclaimed the one
who appeared to be somewhat the eldest. "Who'd have thought it, when we
parted four years ago at old Railton's that we were next to meet out
here. I didn't think you would have got leave to enter the service."

"Neither did I expect to get afloat, and still less to become your
messmate, when you, lucky dog that I thought you, left school. I moped
on there for nearly another year, and then wrote to my governor and told
him that if he didn't let me go to sea I should never be fit for
anything. At last he believed that I was in earnest, and with a light
heart I turned my back upon Brook-green, and shipped on board the old
_Rodney_. But, I say, old fellow, what sort of a chap is our skipper?
He looks like a taut hand."

"There is not a better fellow afloat," was the answer. "He's none of
your milk-and-water chaps who'll let butter melt in their mouths, of
that you may be assured; but he knows what ought to be done, and what
man can do; and he makes them do it too. There's no shirking work or
being slack in stays when he carries on the duty, and there's not a
smarter ship in the service, nor a happier one either, though he won't
allow an idler on board. The fact is, my boy, both officers and men
know that no one can shirk their work, so it comes easy to all, and we
have more leave and less punishment than nearly any other vessel on the
station.

"But, I say, Jack Raby, is it true, that he makes the midshipmen do the
duty of topmen?" asked the youngest of the two.

"I believe you, my boy," answered Jack Raby. "He makes all the
youngsters lie out in the topsail-yards, and hand the canvas in fine
style, ay, and black down the rigging at times too. By Jove, he's the
fellow to make your kid-glove-wearing gentlemen dip their hands in the
tar-bucket, and keep them there, if he sees they are in any way
squeamish about it."

"By jingo, he seems to be somewhat of a Tartar," exclaimed the
midshipman called Duff, with a half-doubtful expressio