the White and the Blue Squadrons, which Sir Peppery
manoeuvred with much skill, to the no small trouble of the signal
midshipmen. The second day, Ned Lenny, the young gentleman on board the
_Harold_ who held that office, vowed he must leave the service and go
into the Dragoons, if it was to be carried on in that way; though the
following morning he thought better of it. He gained, however, the
_sobriquet_ of the Heavy, which, as he was a cocksparrow of a fellow, he
retained ever afterwards. Captain Poynder was not inclined to save
either officers or crew till we got into good order, which we
accordingly did our best to accomplish.

After cruising for six weeks, we were ordered to Spithead to complete
our provisions, water, and stores; and then, having taken some
passengers on board, made all sail for our station in Mediterranean.

We had not been long at sea when Dicky and I, wearying of the daily
routine of duty, began to play pranks which were calculated to bring us
into trouble. The boatswain, who rejoiced in the name of Timotheus
Trundle, was one of the most extraordinary of his class, though not a
bad boatswain for all that. His appearance in foul weather was that of
a short lump of big coats and trousers, with a small red pumpkin growing
out of them. On a nearer approach, one discovered in the said pumpkin a
pair of red, ferrety eyes, an excrescence for a nose, and a hole into
which his whistle fitted for a mouth, and on either side of it, on a
Sunday morning, two very high shirt-collars, they towards the end of the
week gaining a darker hue and an outward curve. On the top of the
pumpkin was a round Spanish hat, the fluff of the catskin which composed
it being long enough to make a dozen beavers. He wore, with
considerable pride, round his neck a handsome silver call and chain.
But with all his oddities, his enemies--and he had a few--were obliged
to confess that he knew and did his duty as well as any man in the ship.
Among his other qualifications, he was a bit of a sea-lawyer; not of
the cantankerous sort, however, for it might be more justly said that he
preferred sitting on the judicial bench, and he was ever ready to settle
all disputes either by arbitration or the rope's-end; indeed, in most
cases he had recourse to the latter, as being the most summary mode of
proceeding. When his duty did not require his presence on his own
territory, the forecastle, he was fond of taking a walk on the
main-de