he had a temper, too, and were
as fiery as a she-tiger cat, she were; and, wot between the two, there
was then--Breakfast, sir? Yezsir, comin', sir!"

The wiry little cock-eyed waiter rushed off, with his napkin over his
shoulder, as he uttered the last words; and, wondering what had caused
him to break off so unexpectedly in the middle of his yarn, apparently
just when he was approaching the most interesting part of it, I turned
my head and saw mother and Dad were within the coffee-room, having
entered the doorway just behind me.

"Hullo, Jack!" said my father, "what was that waiter chap yarning about?
You seemed very much taken up with what he was saying."

I thereupon told him as much as I had heard of the old port admiral.

"Pooh, nonsense, the rascal has only been `pulling your leg' with a
cock-and-a-bull story, Jack," said dad in a contemptuous tone when I had
finished--for he was an officer of the old school and always believed in
the obligations of discipline, invariably "sticking up" for those
superior to him in rank in the service--"I knew old Admiral Fitzblazes
myself very well, and a better officer and gentleman never wore the
Queen's uniform!"

While he was speaking to this effect, the "cock-eyed rascal," as Dad
called him, came in with our breakfast, giving me a sly wink with his
sound eye behind Dad's back as he passed him; so, sitting down, we
hurried through the meal without any further conversation, I feeling
more and more nervous the nearer the hour fixed for the examination
approached, and mother and Dad both keeping silent, in sympathy with me.

Breakfast accomplished, Dad accompanied me to the dockyard, and saw me
off to the _Excellent_; where, on getting on board, with my certificate
of birth and moral character in my pocket and my heart in my mouth, I
was ushered into the wardroom, with some twenty other aspirants for
naval honours like myself.

All of us, of course, were mostly of the same age, but, naturally, of
various builds and size; some tall, some short; some thin, some fat;
some ugly, some handsome.

One little chap whom I noticed was much smaller than I was, although Dad
had expressly drawn Admiral Napier's attention to the fact of my being
rather short for my age.

This youngster had a bright merry face and smiled in a friendly way to
me; but the others looked at me generally as a collection of strange
dogs appear to regard any new comer suddenly brought amongst them,
eyeing