c are
familiar. Few, perhaps, are like it, though after we had been a year or
two at sea it had sadly been shorn of its glory. Its brilliancy had
departed, and its polish was no more. We happened to have a caterer,
who liked to have everything very natty about him, and who had
accordingly taken on himself to spend a few pounds in having our berth
neatly done up. The bulkheads were painted of a salmon colour; there
was a gilt and blue moulding; a neat oilcloth over the table and
lockers; and at one end a buffet filled with plated dish-covers and
dishes, tumblers and wine-glasses, forks and spoons, and China teacups;
while two swing-lamps hung from the deck above. It afforded a contrast,
certainly, to the times of the old school, when a purser's dip was stuck
in a black bottle, and battered tin cups served alternately for grog and
tea and soup; but though the language of the occupants of our berth was
somewhat more refined, and our opinions more liberal, I will venture to
say that the spirit to will and to do deeds of daring burnt not the less
brightly in our bosoms than in those of midshipmen of former times.
While I was at Ryde the ship's company moved out of the old _Topaze_,
alongside of which we were lashed, into the frigate; and the day after
several mates and midshipmen, with somewhat aristocratic pretensions,
joined us. I got a hint, when I came back from Ryde, that they were
rather inclined to look down upon me as having been a cutter's
midshipman.

"They shan't cut me, at all events," said I to myself. So as soon as I
got on board I went below, and taking the fiddle old Hanks had given me,
I sat myself down on my chest, and began playing away with all my might
a merry Irish jig.

"Hillo; who is the jolly fellow out there?" asked one of the new mates
from the berth.

"Oh, that's the Irish midshipman, D'Arcy," answered Onslow, a mate who
had sometime joined. "Give us another tune, Paddy, that's a good boy."

On this I forthwith struck up "Saint Patrick's Day in the Morning," and
half a dozen other Irish airs.

"If no one objects, I'll sing, too, mates," said I, when I had played
out my tunes.

Without waiting for an answer, I locked up my fiddle, and taking my seat
at one end of the berth, I trolled out, with a very fair voice, several
songs which used to delight old Hanks and my other shipmates in the
cutter. The effect was evidently good. I showed my wish to please; and
though afterwards a few