the moment I jumped overboard and rose to the surface; and, presently,
after a long pull and a hard one too, the boat came up to the buoy and
took us off.

`By the Lord Harry!' as father used to exclaim sometimes when he was
excited, you should have only heard the cheer that greeted us when the
cutter got back to the brig, which had now dropped her anchor; the boys
and older hands also, who were just on their way down from aloft after
furling the sails, manning the rigging, and giving out a wild and hearty
`Hooray' that might have been heard in the dockyard.

The commander complimented me on the quarter-deck, saying that my action
was a plucky one to jump overboard as I did, whether to save man or dog;
and then ordering the steward to fetch me a stiff glass of hot brandy-
and-water, he told me to go below and turn in to my hammock.

`Gyp,' however, would not leave me; and, as he insisted on joining
company with me in my hammock, I made him go shares with the brandy-and-
water as well, though I can't say that he took his portion with as much
satisfaction.

His master, on coming to hear of the occurrence when he returned from
leave, was, I need hardly say, delighted that `Gyp' had been saved from
a watery grave.

He extolled, indeed, my really unpremeditated action in much higher
terms than it actually deserved; for, really, I did it, as I have said
before, without thinking.

However, be that as it may, the captain, commending me on my good
conduct generally since I had been attached to the training-ship under
his command, passed over in the most honourable way that unfortunate
smoking episode of mine, and promised to `keep his eye on me.'

This, I may add, he did in a much more satisfactory manner than that
smart chap, ship's corporal Smithers; but, of this, you will learn anon.

My days in the _Saint Vincent_, you must know, were now drawing to a
close.

Nine months of second-class boy instruction and four months as a first-
class boy had pretty well taken me through the ordinary routine of the
training-ship; the last two months of my stay on board being mainly
devoted to a _resume_ of the various studies constituting seamanship
which I had already gone through, as well as a grand rehearsal of gun
practice and rifle drill and of the sword exercise.

In this latter all the boys took the keenest delight, cutting and
slashing at one another with a go and gusto worthy of all admiration.

We pointed, guarded,