o again, Dick; not so good as Lincolnshire coast, I
suppose?"

"As good, sir? Why, how can it be?" said the broad, sturdy sailor
addressed. "Nothin' but great high stony rocks, full o' beds of great
flat periwinkles and whelks; nowhere to land, nothin' to see. I am
surprised at you, sir. Why, there arn't a morsel o' sand."

"For not praising your nasty old flat sandy shore, with its marsh
beyond, and its ague and bogs and fens."

"Wish I was 'mong 'em now, sir. Wild ducks there, as is fit to eat, not
iley fishy things like these here."

"Oh, bother! Wish I could have had another hour or two's sleep. I say,
Dirty Dick, are you sure the watch wasn't called too soon?"

"Nay, sir, not a bit; and, beggin' your pardon, sir, if you wouldn't
mind easin' off the Dirty--Dick's much easier to say."

"Oh, very well, Dick. Don't be so thin-skinned about a nickname."

"That's it, sir. I arn't a bit thin-skinned. Why, my skin's as thick
as one of our beasts. I can't help it lookin' brown. Washes myself
deal more than some o' my mates as calls me dirty. Strange and curious
how a name o' that kind sticks."

"Oh, I say, don't talk so," said the lad by the rough sailor's side; and
after another yawn he began to stride up and down the deck of His
Majesty's cutter _White Hawk_, lying about a mile from the Freestone
coast of Wessex.

It was soon after daybreak, the sea was perfectly calm and a thick grey
mist hung around, making the deck and cordage wet and the air chilly,
while the coast, with its vast walls of perpendicular rocks, looked
weird and distant where a peep could be obtained amongst the wreaths of
vapour.

"Don't know when I felt so hungry," muttered the lad, as he thrust his
hands into his breeches pockets, and stopped near the sailor, who smiled
in the lad's frank-looking, handsome face.

"Ah, you always were a one to yeat, sir, ever since you first came
aboard."

"You're a noodle, Dick. Who wouldn't be hungry, fetched out of his cot
at this time of the morning to take the watch. Hang the watch! Bother
the watch! Go and get me a biscuit, Dick, there's a good fellow."

The sailor showed his white teeth, and took out a brass box.

"Can't get no biscuit yet, sir. Have a bit o' this. Keeps off the
gnawin's wonderful."

"Yah! Who's going to chew tobacco!" cried the lad with a look of
disgust, as he buttoned up his uniform jacket. "Oh, hang it all, I wish
the sun would come out!"

"Won't be