gs," turning
to the master, who just then came in from forward, "have you taken a
look out of doors this morning?"

"You know I seldom forget that, Mr. Bury. A pretty pickle the ship would
soon be in, if _I_ forgot to look about me!"

"He swallowed the deep-sea, down in the bay," cried the honourable,
laughing, "and goes every morning at day-light to look for it out at the
bridle-ports."

"Well, then, Soundings, what do you think of the third ship in the
French line?" continued Bury, disregarding the levity of the youth: "did
you ever see such top-masts, as she carries, before?"

"I scarce ever saw a Frenchman without them, Mr. Bury. You'd have just
such sticks in this fleet, if Sir Jarvy would stand them."

"Ay, but Sir Jarvy _won't_ stand them. The captain who sent such a stick
up in his ship, would have to throw it overboard before night. I never
saw such a pole in the air in my life!"

"What's the matter with the mast, Mr. Bury?" put in Magrath, who kept up
what he called constant scientific skirmishes with the _elder_
sea-officers; the _junior_ being too inexperienced in his view to be
worthy of a contest. "I'll engage the spar is moulded and fashioned
agreeably to the most approved pheelosphical principles; for in _that_
the French certainly excel us."

"Who ever heard of _moulding_ a spar?" interrupted Soundings, laughing
loudly, "we _mould_ a ship's frame, Doctor, but we _lengthen_ and
_shorten_, and _scrape_ and _fid_ her masts."

"I'm answered as usual, gentlemen, and voted down, I suppose by
acclamation, as they call it in other learned bodies. I would advise no
creature that has a reason to go to sea; an instinct being all that is
needed to make a Lord High Admiral of twenty tails."

"I should like Sir Jarvy to hear _that_, my man of books," cried the
fourth, who had satisfied himself that a book was not his own forte--"I
fancy your instinct, doctor, will prevent you from whispering this in
the vice-admiral's ear!"

Although Magrath had a profound respect for the commander-in-chief, he
was averse to giving in, in a gun-room discussion. His answer,
therefore, partook of the feeling of the moment.

"Sir Gervaise," (he pronounced this word Jairvis,) "Sir Gervaise Oakes,
_honourable_ sir," he said, with a sneer, "may be a good seaman, but
he's no linguist. Now, there he was, ashore among the dead and dying,
just as ignorant of the meaning of _filius nullius_, which is boy's
Latin, as if he had neve