s, like an evil shadow, nor left me until the "beginning of the
end."

The ship had been hove down, the wound in her forefoot healed, that is
to say, the huge rent stopped up; and we were beginning to get water and
stores on board, and I was walking on the quay of the dockyard, when I
was civilly accosted by a man having the appearance of a captain's
steward. He was pale and handsome, with small white hands; and, if not
actually genteel in his deportment, had that metropolitan refinement of
look that indicated contact with genteel society. Though dressed in the
blue jacket and white duck trousers of the sailor's Sunday best, at a
glance you would pronounce him to be no seaman. Before he spoke to me,
he had looked attentively at several other midshipmen, some belonging to
my own ship, others, young gentlemen who were on shore on dockyard duty.
At length, after a scrutiny sufficient to make me rather angry, he took
off his hat very respectfully, and said:

"Have I the honour of speaking to Mr Ralph Rattlin?"

"You have: well, my man?"

"Ah, sir, you forget me, and no wonder. My name, sir, is Daunton--
Joshua Daunton."

"Never heard the name before in my life."

"Oh yes, you have, sir, begging your pardon, very often indeed. Why,
you used to call me Jossey; little Jossey, come here you little
vagabond, and let me ride you pick-aback."

"The devil I did!"

"Why, Mr Rattlin, I was your fag at Mr Roots' school."

Now I knew this to be a lie; for, under that very respectable pedagogue,
and in that very respectable seminary, as the reader well knows, I was
the _fagged_, and not the fagger.

"Now, really, Joshua Daunton," said I, "I am inclined to think that you
may be Joshua, the little vagabond, still; for, upon my honour, I
remember nothing about you. Seeing there were so many hundred boys
under Mr Roots, my schoolfellow you might have been; but may I be
vexed, if ever I fagged you or any one else! Now, my good man, prove to
me that you have been my schoolfellow first, and then let me know what I
can do for you afterwards, for I suppose that you have some favour to
ask, or some motive in seeking me."

"I have, indeed," he replied, with a peculiar intonation of voice, that
might have been construed in many ways. He then proceeded to give me
many details of the school at Islington, which convinced me, if there he
had never been, he had conversed with some one who had. Still, he
evaded all my attempts at c