t invariably do) to be pleasant,
gentlemanlike companions. The boxing-gloves were soon produced by Captain
Oughton, who soon ascertained that in the officer who "would peel so well"
he had found his match. The mornings were passed away in sparring, fencing,
reading, walking the deck, or lolling on the hen-coops upon the poop. The
announcement of the dinner-hour was a signal for rejoicing; and they
remained late at the table, doing ample justice to the captain's excellent
claret. The evening was finished with cards, cigars, and brandy _pawnee_.
Thus passed the time away for the first three weeks of the passage, during
which period all parties had become upon intimate terms.

But the voyage is, in itself, most tedious; and more tedious to those who
not only have no duty to perform, but have few resources. As soon as the
younger officers thought they might take a liberty, they examined the
hen-coops, and selecting the most promising-looking cocks, trimmed them for
fighting; chose between themselves, as their own property, those which they
most approved of, and for some days fed and sparred them, to get them into
wind, and ascertain the proper way in which they should be spurred. In the
meantime, two pairs of spurs were, by their directions, clandestinely made
by the armourer of the ship, and, when ready, they took advantage of the
time when Captain Oughton was every day employed with the ship's reckoning,
and the poulterer was at his dinner (viz., from twelve to one), to fight a
main. The cocks which were killed in these combats were returned to the
hen-coops, and supposed by the poulterer, who had very often had a glass of
grog, to have quarrelled within the bars.

"Steward," said Captain Oughton, "why the devil do you give us so many
fowls for dinner? the stock will never last out the voyage: two roast
fowls, two boiled fowls, curried fowl, and chicken pie! What can you be
thinking of?"

"I spoke to the poulterer on the subject, sir; he constantly brings me down
fowls, and he tells me that they kill each other fighting."

"Fighting! never heard of fowls fighting in a coop before. They must be all
game fowls."

"That they are, most of them," said Mr Petres; "I have often seen them
fighting when I have been on the poop."

"So have I," continued Ansell; "I have seen worse cocks in the pit."

"Well, it's very odd; I never lost a cock in this way in all my voyages.
Send the poulterer here; I must inquire about it."

"