N.

The next day being Sunday, the hands were turned up to divisions, and
the weather not being favourable, instead of the Service, the articles
of war were read with all due respect shown to the same, the captain,
officers, and crew with their hats off in a mizzling rain. Jack, who
had been told by the captain that these articles of war were the rules
and regulations of the service, by which the captain, officers, and men
were equally bound, listened to them as they were read by the clerk with
the greatest attention. He little thought that there were about five
hundred orders from the admiralty tacked on to them, which, like the
numerous codicils of some wills, contained the most important matter,
and to a certain degree make the will nugatory.

Jack listened very attentively, and, as each article was propounded,
felt that he was not likely to commit himself in that point, and,
although he was rather astonished to find such a positive injunction
against swearing, considered quite a dead letter in the ship, he thought
that, altogether, he saw his way very clear. But to make certain of it,
as soon as the hands had been piped down he begged the clerk to let him
have a copy of the articles.

Now the clerk had three, being the allowance of the ship, or at least
all that he had in his possession, and made some demur at parting with
one; but at last he proposed--"some rascal," as he said, "having stolen
his tooth-brush"--that if Jack would give him one he would give him one
of the copies of the articles of war. Jack replied that the one he had
in use was very much worn, and that unfortunately he had but one new
one, which he could not spare. Thereupon the clerk, who was a very
clean personage, and could not bear that his teeth should be dirty,
agreed to accept the one in use, as Jack could not part with the other.
The exchange was made, and Jack read the articles of war over and over
again, till he thought he was fully master of them.

"Now," says Jack, "I know what I am to do, and what I am to expect, and
these articles of war I will carry in my pocket as long as I'm in the
service; that is to say, if they last so long; and, provided they do
not, I am able to replace them with another old tooth-brush, which
appears to be the value attached to them."

The _Harpy_ remained a fortnight in Gibraltar Bay, and Jack had
occasionally a run on shore, and Mr Asper invariably went with him to
keep him out of mischief; that is