as first lieutenant, overlook any remission of duty, the
offer was accepted, and Jack Easy was ordered, as he now entered upon
his duties, to keep watch under Lieutenant Asper.

But not only was this the first day that Jack may be said to have
appeared in the service, but it was the first day in which he had
entered the midshipman's berth, and was made acquainted with his
messmates.

We have already mentioned Mr Jolliffe, the master's mate, but we must
introduce him more particularly. Nature is sometimes extremely
arbitrary, and never did she show herself more so than in insisting that
Mr Jolliffe should have the most sinister expression of countenance
that ever had been looked upon.

He had suffered martyrdom with the small-pox, which probably had
contracted his lineaments: his face was not only deeply pitted, but
scarred, with this cruel disorder. One eye had been lost, and all
eyebrows had disappeared--and the contrast between the dull, sightless
opaque orb on one side of his face, and the brilliant, piercing little
ball on the other, was almost terrifying. His nose had been eaten away
by the disease till it formed a sharp but irregular point: part of the
muscles of the chin were contracted, and it was drawn in with unnatural
seams and puckers. He was tall, gaunt, and thin, seldom smiled, and
when he did, the smile produced a still further distortion.

Mr Jolliffe was the son of a warrant officer. He did not contract this
disease until he had been sent out to the West Indies, where it swept
away hundreds. He had now been long in the service, with little or no
chance of promotion. He had suffered from indigence, from reflections
upon his humble birth, from sarcasms on his appearance. Every contumely
had been heaped upon him at one time or another, in the ships in which
he served; among a crowd he had found himself desolate--and now,
although no one dared treat him to his face with disrespect, he was only
respected in the service from a knowledge of his utility and exemplary
performance of his duties--he had no friends or even companions. For
many years he had retired within himself, he had improved by reading and
study, had felt all the philanthropy of a Christian, and extended it
towards others. Silent and reserved, he seldom spoke in the berth,
unless his authority, as caterer, was called for; all respected Mr
Jolliffe, but no one liked, as a companion, one at whose appearance the
very dogs would bark