ome other hero, during the
times of the wars, contrived to drag one of his ship's guns to the top
of a lofty mountain guarding the entrance to Castries, the harbour of
Saint Lucia, which was by this means captured from its French
possessors, and is now numbered with the rest of our West Indian
colonies.

This, however, is a `knotty' point.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

I `GO ALOFT,' LIKE MY ANCESTOR!

"Tom," said Mick to me, on my telling him this, when we were dismissed
anon from instruction drill and were going up on the upper deck during
the `break-off,' for a brief breath of fresh air before proceeding below
again to our tea, "wer that theer yarn thrue, sure, ye wos afther
tellin' me?"

He spoke earnestly, and I replied to him in the same tone. "It's true
enough, Mick, that one of our officers did manage to parbuckle a gun up
to the top of a high rock, or, rather, mountain, which commanded the
land defences of Castries, the principal town of Saint Lucia in the West
Indies! I've heard father speak about it many a time," said I. "But,
'pon my word, Mick, I can't precisely recollect if it was the gallant
Rodney or Sir Ralph Abercromby; for both of 'em were busy in those parts
at the time, and pretty well made their mark too! All I can say is,
though, that through this dodge they took the Frenchies unawares and
gave them a dressing as British sailors have always done when we've been
at loggerheads with them furrin chaps!"

Mick Donovan scratched his head, in the same solemn way father used to
do, as if trying to rub in this valuable piece of historical
information.

"Faith," said he, "I can't underconstubble it at all, at all!"

There our conversation came to an abrupt close; the bugle summoning us
to supper, and Mick being extremely particular, I found, never to be
late at meal-times if he could possibly help it!

The next morning, after the usual routine of lashing up and stowing our
hammocks in the nettings, on the completion of our breakfast, it was the
turn of the second division of the starboard watch, to which we
belonged, as I have already detailed, to go to school in the big room on
the lower deck aft, where we had passed our original initiatory
examination before signing our papers.

The boys were given very fair play in respect of their nautical
education, taking each department of their instruction turn and turn
about in regular order.

For instance, if the port watch attended school from Three Bel