n.

So did the master and purser and Mr McGilpin, the assistant-surgeon;
the latter saying that he had no stomach for consorting with "the
meeletary," they being "a maist feckless set o' loons."

As for the middies and us cadets, we had to draw lots to decide who
should go and who stop behind; but, at the last moment, the commander
gave permission for us all to go, save Andrews, who had been impertinent
to the first lieutenant in the afternoon and was ordered to remain in
the ship.

I was not sorry I went, after all, for it was a jolly affair and I
enjoyed myself mightily, especially at the supper table, where the
redcoats shone to perfection; this opinion of mine being shared, I
believe, by most of my fellow youngsters, who cared more for the grand
tuck out they had than all the dancing in the world.

I noticed, though, that Mr Jellaby kept up his reputation as a lady's
man, waltzing and flirting all the evening with an awfully fat Dutch
frau, who was broader of beam than comported with her short stature, and
whom the susceptible lieutenant subsequently described as "the most
chawming woman" he had ever met in his life! "Joe" got awfully chaffed
about her by all of his brother officers of the wardroom whose rank
permitted them to take such a liberty with him; and, though we could
take no share in their personal amenities, we youngsters grinned our
approval of the various witty remarks and rejoinders that passed to and
fro on our way back aboard the following day--the ball having lasted
till long after daybreak the next morning, and Simon's Bay being all
astir, with plenty of "Simons," black and white, astir ashore and
afloat, as we rowed out to the ship, we having nearly outstayed our
leave, the captain and commander preceding us aboard by a long spell.

We gave a return dance to the garrison folk and hospitable inhabitants
generally the day before we sailed for the China Sea; when the old
_Candahar_ was decked out so gaily with bunting and evergreens, with
which we were lavishly supplied from the shore, that the riggers of
Portsmouth Dockyard would not have known her.

Her upper deck was a perfect parterre of flowers and foliage,
intertwined with the flags of all nations, and enclosed under an awning,
which latter had a canvas screen all round to keep out the prying eyes
of the bluejackets on the forecastle.

Going round with Mr Fortescue Jones, the assistant-paymaster, whom I
had taken a liking to in consequ