going to have my smoke, if
there is a row about it."

Goodwin put on his pea-jacket, and left the room.

CHAPTER XV.

AFTER THE GALE.

One of the most singular traits observable in the character of some boys
is the willingness, and even the desire, under certain circumstances, to
get into trouble. A young gentleman, feeling that he has been slighted,
or his merit overlooked, permits himself to fall into a mental condition
in which he feels no responsibility for his conduct; in which he
recklessly breaks through all regulations, places himself in an attitude
of opposition to constituted authority, and seems to court the heaviest
penalty which can be inflicted upon him for disobedience, impudence, and
rebellion.

The fourth lieutenant of the Young America had worked himself up to this
disagreeable pitch. He was not only disposed to assume an attitude of
opposition to the principal, who had made the obnoxious regulation which
was the immediate cause of his rebellious condition, but to all who
supported his authority, or willingly submitted to it.

Smoking was a high crime on board the Young America--not in the relation
of the practice to the ship, but to the student. It was condemned, not
simply because it would be offensive in the cabins and steerage, and on
deck, but because it was a bad habit for a boy to acquire. The adult
forward officers, the cooks and the stewards, were allowed to smoke on
the forecastle at certain prescribed hours; but it was a punishable
offence for a student to smoke at any time or in any place, whether on
board or on shore.

Goodwin was indignant at the conduct of his room-mate, for the third
lieutenant was not only opposed to smoking on principle, but the fumes
of tobacco were intensely offensive to him; and there was no doubt that,
in the confined space of the state room, insufficiently ventilated,
while all the openings in the deck were closed during the gale, the
smoke would make him "as sick as a horse." He was a noble-minded, manly
youth, and had all a boy's detestation for tattling and tale-bearing. He
did not like to go on deck and inform the principal of the conduct of
Pelham, but he could not submit to the indignity cast upon him. He went
out into the cabin, and threw himself upon the cushioned divan, under
the stern ports of the ship.

This would have been a very satisfactory place to sleep under ordinary
circumstances; but Goodwin had hardly secured a comfortable po