to be dipped?"

"Walk away, and go below to your mess, you idle, shamming scoundrel,"
cried the doctor.

Private Sim opened his lips to speak, but the look he received was too
much for him, and he slowly walked off, trying hard to appear ill-used,
till he reached the companion ladder, down which he shuffled to the
intense delight of the men.

There was no land in sight, but the sea was glorious in the brilliant
sunshine--so clear and blue that the darting fish could be seen far
below; and before long, Bob Roberts had borrowed a fishing-line from
Dick, the old sailor, baited the hooks, and was trailing it behind the
vessel, in the hope of catching enough fish for a dinner for his mess.

At first his sport was not very good; but after a time he captured a
large glistening fish, evidently, from its silvery skin, belonging to
the mackerel family; and this so excited Ensign Long, who had been
looking on rather contemptuously, that he borrowed a line of the
boatswain, and was also soon at work fishing.

The lads had such good sport that the officers looked on quite amused,
and the ladies under the awning asked from time to time to be shown the
glistening captives that had been taken.

Soon after the doctor joined the party, to discourse learnedly about the
various fishes, which he classified as he pointed out their
peculiarities, assuring his fair hearers that far more beautiful
specimens might yet be taken.

Rachel Linton, a fair, very intelligent looking girl, was much
interested in the doctor's descriptions, as was also her cousin, Mary
Sinclair, a dark, handsome, but delicate, brunette, of nineteen, full of
questions, which the doctor took great delight in answering.

Bob Roberts and the young ensign vied one with the other in hurrying up
with their fish, as they were successful, Ensign Long looking hopelessly
disgusted as he saw the middy catch and carry three fish in succession
beneath the awning, while he could not get a bite.

Soon, however, his turn came, and with a look of triumph he bore a long
silvery fish with bars of azure blue across its scaly armour, to where
the ladies were seated, Bob Roberts biting his lips as he heard the
exclamations of pleasure uttered by each of the cousins in turn.

"Never mind," he muttered, "I shall have a startler directly, see if I
don't," and he fished away, changing his bait, or replacing it as it was
lost in consequence of the rapid motion of the steamer through the