p for it. I don't mind it, in winter, because it
makes a sort of thatch for the head; but it is awful, now. I feel
just as if I had got a pudding crust all over my head."

"Well, that is appropriate, Jim," laughed Bob; and then Jim chased
him all along the path, till they got within sight of a sentry in a
battery; and then his dignity as midshipman compelled them to
desist, and the pair walked gravely down into the town.

That evening after lessons were over Dr. Burke, as usual, went up
on to the terrace to smoke a cigar with Captain O'Halloran.

"It is a pity altogether, Mrs. O'Halloran," he said, as he stood by
her side, looking over the moonlit bay, with the dark hulls of the
ships and the faint lights across at Algeciras, "that we can't do
away with the day, and have nothing but night of it, for four or
five months in the year. I used to think it must be mighty
unpleasant for the Esquimaux; but faith, I envy them now. Fancy
five or six months without catching a glimpse of that burning old
sun!"

"I don't suppose they think so," Mrs. O'Halloran laughed, "but it
would be pleasant here. The heat has been dreadful, all day; and it
is really only after sunset that one begins to enjoy life."

"You may well say that, Mrs. O'Halloran. Faith, I wish they would
let me take off my coat, and do my work in my shirtsleeves down at
the hospital. Sure, it is a strange idea these military men have
got in their heads, that a man isn't fit for work unless he is
buttoned so tightly up to the chin that he is red in the face. If
nature had meant it, we should have been born in a suit of scale
armour, like a crocodile.

"Well, there is one consolation--if there is a siege, I expect
there will be an end of hair powder and cravats. It's the gineral
rule, on a campaign; and it is worth standing to be shot at, to
have a little comfort in one's life."

"Do you think that there is any chance at all of the Spaniards
taking the place, if they do besiege us?" Bob asked, as Dr. Burke
took his seat.

"None of taking the place by force, Bob. It has been besieged, over
and over again; and it is pretty nearly always by hunger that it
has fallen. That is where the pinch will come, if they besiege us
in earnest: it's living on mice and grass you are like to be,
before it is over."

"But the fleet will bring in provisions, surely, Dr. Burke?"

"The fleet will have all it can do to keep the sea, against the
navies of France and Spain. They wi