by seemed to enjoy the
cold water amazingly, and kicked and splashed about, and spluttered and
cooed with abundant glee, greatly to Paul's delight.

"Ah, I knowed it. He'll be a regular salt from truck to kelson!" he
exclaimed, looking at the little fellow affectionately, and holding him
up so as to let his head just float above water. "He'll astonish them
some of these days. Depend on't, Will," he added, turning to Freeborn,
who had come in to have a look at his child.

The Captain had directed the hammocks of the two men to be slung in this
cabin, and little True Blue had a cot slung along close to the deck; so
that if by chance he had tumbled out, he would not have been much the
worse for it. As the father and his friend were in different watches,
they were able, under ordinary circumstances, to relieve each other in
nursing the baby; but when any heavy work was to be done, and the
services of both of them were required on deck, Sam Smatch, who was not
fit even for ordinary idlers' work, was called in to act nurse.

This was an employment in which Sam especially delighted, and he would
have bargained for a gale of wind any day in the week for the sake of
having to take care of little True Blue. Billy, from the first, never
objected to his black face, but cooed and smiled, and was greatly
delighted whenever he appeared. Sam altogether took wonderfully to the
baby, and used to declare that he loved it as much as he did his own
fiddle, if not more. He would not say positively--both were his
delight--both squeaked; but his fiddle was his older friend. Billy,
indeed, never wanted nurses, and there was not a man on board who was
not happy to get him to look after. The greatest risk he ran was from
over-kindness, or from having a tumble among the numerous candidates for
the pleasure of dandling him when once they got him among them on the
maindeck; and no set of schoolgirls could make a more eager rush to
snatch up the little child left among them, than did the big-bearded,
whiskered, and pig-tailed tars to catch hold of Billy True Blue.

Among the other candidates for the pleasure of nursing little Billy was
a young midshipman, known generally as Natty Garland. He had been
seized with the fever, and been carried, for better nursing, into the
Captain's cabin. This was his first voyage away from home, where he had
left many brothers and sisters. It was nearly proving his last.
Although he looked so slight and