, Tom, that were only a little joke, don-cher-no," he replied, with a
grin and a wink of the most expressive character, "Lor', yer don't bear
no mallerce, I knows!"

What could I say?

He was not half a bad fellow either; and so, having experienced many a
little kindness from him as a new hand, in spite of his strong
propensity for practical-joking at my expense, which I do not believe he
could have possibly resisted under any circumstances, I passed the word
to Mick to make him free of the jam-pot.

So, too, with the rest of those that hung round us, sailors and sailor-
boys generally being generous alike by nature and inclination; and the
end of it was, that the supply which mother thought would have lasted
Mick and me till we saw her again, vanished the same night!

CHAPTER NINE.

I BECOME A "FIRST-CLASS BOY."

Our life aboard after this passed very evenly, though not uneventfully;
for there was hardly a day that something did not occur as interesting
as it was novel to our previous experience.

Talk of a sailor's life being dull! Why, it's full of incident, full of
interest, full of adventure; and even on board a harbour ship, like the
_Saint Vincent_, I tell you, there is sport to be had afloat as well as
ashore!

We had a rat-hunt once, some three or four weeks after I joined the
ship.

The captain's dog, a fine cock-eared fox-terrier named `Gyp,' with the
most wonderful eyes, and a nose that worked with excitement as quickly
as his short-cropped tail, which was docked to half an inch and was ever
on the wag, got into the habit of coming forward on the forecastle
whenever he was let out of his master's cabin, in the most unaccountable
manner.

Now `Gyp,' you must know, was a rather particular dog in his way,
keeping to his own station when below; while, should he be taken up on
the quarter-deck by the captain, or accompany any of the other officers
there, he would never, as a rule, advance farther towards the fore part
of the ship than the main-hatchway.

All of a sudden, however, master `Gyp' takes it into his head to make
free of the forecastle, and associate with such of the lower deck men
who might chance to be there.

This, of course, was derogatory to his dignity as a captain's dog; but,
although remonstrated with by his master's valet, who had charge of him
when the captain did not take him ashore--aye, and even whipped for thus
straying forwards--`Gyp' would persist in his unseemly pre