places."

"Well, now, Sir Gervaise, I think the Achilles makes as good an
appearance as most of the other ships; and as to travelling or working,
I do not know that she is either dull or clumsy!"

"She's pretty well, Morganic, considering how many Bond-street ideas you
have got among you; but she'll never do in a head sea, with that
fore-top-mast threatening your knight-heads. So get the mast
up-and-down, again, as soon as convenient, and come and dine with me,
without further invitation, the first fine day we have at sea. I'm going
to send Parker some brawn; but, I'll feed _you_ on some of Galleygo's
turtle-soup, made out of pig's heads."

"Thank'ee, Sir Gervaise; we'll endeavour to straighten the slick, since
you _will_ have it so; though, I confess I get tired of seeing every
thing to-day, just as we had it yesterday."

"Yes--yes--that's the way with most of these St. James cruisers,"
continued the vice-admiral, as he rowed away. "They want a fashionable
tailor to rig a man-of-war, as they are rigged themselves. There's my
old friend and neighbour, Lord Scupperton--he's taken a fancy to
yachting, lately, and when his new brig was put into the water, Lady
Scupperton made him send for an upholsterer from town to fit out the
cabin; and when the blackguard had surveyed the unfortunate craft, as if
it were a country box, what does he do but give an opinion, that 'this
here edifice, my lord, in my judgment, should be furnished in cottage
style,'--the vagabond!"

This story, which was not particularly original, for Sir Gervaise
himself had told it at least a dozen times before, put the admiral in a
good humour, and he found no more fault with his captains, until he
reached the Plantagenet.

"Daly," said the Earl of Morganic to his first lieutenant, an
experienced old Irishman of fifty, who still sung a good song and told a
good story, and what was a little extraordinary for either of these
accomplishments, knew how to take good care of a ship;--"Daly, I suppose
we must humour the old gentleman, or he'll be quarantining me, and that
I shouldn't particularly like on the eve of a general action; so we'll
ease off forward, and set up the strings aft, again. Hang me if I think
he could find it out if we didn't, so long as we kept dead in his wake!"

"That wouldn't be a very safe desait for Sir Jarvy, my lord, for he's a
wonderful eye for a rope! Were it Admiral Blue, now, I'd engage to
cruise in his company for a week,