gun; for, a crowd of youngsters, amongst whom I at once
perceived my friend Tom Mills, were grouped together on the open deck in
front of the gunroom, where, as I afterwards heard, their hammocks were
slung at night.

The lot were amusing themselves at some game I was not as yet acquainted
with, but which evidently was one of the most boisterous character, a
"rough and tumble" fight being nothing to it.

"Hullo, Jack, here you are at last!" shouted out Tom Mills, on seeing
me. "Come and join us, old fellow. We're playing at `piling the
sacks.'"

"Piling the sacks?" I repeated. "What game is that?"

"Come along," cried he, "you'll soon learn it. Here's a new hand,
Master Miller. Sacks to the mill! sacks to the mill!"

Thereupon he and a couple of other fellows seized me by my arms and legs
and put me on top of a pile of other johnnies, who were scrambling and
struggling and yelling on the deck in a confused mass, like an animated
roly-poly pudding just turned out of the pot!

Another chap was then tossed on above me, and then another and another,
till I was well-nigh suffocated; and then, when the pile had reached the
top of the hatchway, the "Master Miller" toppled the lot of us over.

On this, we all scrambled to our feet again, laughing and shouting in
high glee; with collars torn and shirts crushed and the buttons wrenched
off our jackets by the dozen. Only to begin the game again as before--
until, finally, the master-at-arms made his appearance below with the
compliments of the first lieutenant to the "young gentlemen," and a
polite request for them to "make less noise."

It was a jolly game, though, I can tell you!

The next day, we all commenced in earnest our studies in navigation and
seamanship, the naval instructor with his assistants working us up in
our mathematics and imparting to us the elements of plane and spherical
trigonometry; while the boatswain and his mates gave us practical
lessons in the setting up of rigging and making of knots, so that there
should be no chance of our mistaking a "sheepshank" for a "cat's paw,"
or a "Flemish eye" for a "grommet!"

Here I at once gained the good opinion of the boatswain by making a
"Matthew Walker" knot which, I may mention for the benefit of the
uninitiated, is used generally on ship board for the standing part of
the lanyards of lower rigging.

This I managed to achieve successfully at my first attempt, thanks to
Dad's previous instruction;