usually uproarious, now singing and shouting, now ready
to quarrel and fight with any one who interfered with him. Ralph was
doing his best to get him to sit down quietly by himself, when the
hammocks were piped below and the men sprang up on deck to bring them
down from the hammock-nettings. "I'm off for mine," cried Dick, getting
on his legs and staggering along the deck. "I look as sober as a judge,
whatever I may be, though I feel very jolly." Ralph tried to stop him,
but Dick, breaking from his friend, scrambled up the ladder, shouting
out, "I'm a free man, and no one shall stop me from doing what I
choose." His shouts drew the attention of one of the officers towards
him. He was ordered aft with his hammock, carrying which, he went
staggering along till he rolled over with it on the deck. In vain he
tried to get on his feet, so he lay still, with just enough
consciousness left to know that he was in a sad scrape, without a chance
of getting out of it till his back and the cat had become acquainted.
The officer of the watch, knowing that it would be useless to speak to
him, sent for two marines, between whom he was taken below and forthwith
placed in irons, thus to remain till he had recovered his senses. The
inevitable consequence followed. The next morning Dick received two
dozen lashes as a punishment for drunkenness.

Dick, who had been one of the merriest fellows on board, now became
morose and surly, even to his best friends; and as the men were afraid
of selling him their liquor, he could not drown his care, as he would
have tried to do had he been able. "Don't talk to me, Ralph," he said
one day when his old shipmate was trying to arouse him to a better state
of mind. "I'm determined to take French leave, and you're not the man I
think you, if you try to stop me."

"I have always been your friend, Dick, and I should prove that I am so
still if I prevented you from doing a mad thing, which would be sure to
bring you into a worse condition than you are now. You would, most
probably, be retaken, or should you escape, you would to a certainty get
drunk, spend all your money, and be left a beggar in a strange land."

"I've a notion that I can take as good care of myself as you, or any
other man, though you have been mate of the _Amity_, and expect some day
to walk the quarter-deck of this ship," answered Dick, with a scornful
laugh, his old feeling of envy of Ralph reviving in his mind. "I shall
h