ence of his having served under Sir
Charles Napier, Dad's old captain and my own personal patron, he noticed
this screen and he told me another anecdote of the old admiral, to add
to my list.

"His flagship, the _Duke of Wellington_, was lying off Kiel or
Copenhagen, I forget which exactly, and the officers were about to give
a similar entertainment to ourselves as an acknowledgment of the kind
treatment they had received from the inhabitants of the place. Like
ours, the ship was decorated throughout regardless of expense, everyone
subscribing to the fund, and a screen similar to what we had was being
put up when the admiral coming down from the poop chanced to notice
this.

"`Hullo!' he cried. `What's that for?'

"`Why, sir,' explained the commander, `it's to keep the men forrud from
staring at the dancers.'

"`The deuce it is!' said the old fellow, taking an awful lot of snuff,
Mr Jones remarked," as if I were not acquainted with this habit of the
veteran sailor.

"`By whose orders was it rigged up?'

"`Orders, sir?' replied the commander, a bit nonplussed. `By mine,
sir.'

"`Then mine are for you to rig it down at once,' cried the admiral, in a
mighty fume, walking up and down and waving his arms about like a
windmill backwards and forwards from his waistcoat pocket to his nose.
`I won't have any screens fitted up on board my ship to keep out my
sailors from seeing what they have as good a right to see and enjoy as
any of those with whom they have fought and bled. No sailors, no ball,
or I'm a Russian! You can put that in your pipe and smoke it, Mr
Commander!'"

"Did the ball come off, Mr Jones," I inquired of the narrator, "after
all?"

"No," said he. "The fleet had to sail the very same day for which it
was fixed. I believe old Charley arranged that it should be so, on
purpose to pay out the commander, who had set his heart on it; for he
was very hard on the men always, and the admiral could not stand that."

"He was a good friend, always, to the sailors?" I remarked. "I have
heard my father say so."

"Rather! Why, he would do anything for them, regardless of his own
comfort, and they in return would follow him anywhere, night or day, in
the face of a thousand batteries. He was, indeed, like a father to
them," continued the paymaster, who was fond of yarning about his old
experiences with the admiral. "I recollect after the bombardment of
Bomarsund and the capture of a lot of prizes up t