, and most deservedly too,
by his master. The very day before, the carpenter had reported him, and
he had got eleven finnams on the hand for having, in conveying Mr
Chissel's grog from the tub to his cabin, being detected in the very act
of taking a hatchway nip--the said hatchway nip, let it be understood,
being a sip snatched furtively by the bearer of a glass of grog on the
ladder descending from the main to the lower deck. A finnam, I must
also explain, is a blow inflicted on the hand, with a cane generally, by
the master-at-arms or the ship's corporal. To the said finnams poor
Bobby Smudge's black paws were well accustomed.

"Boy, what was done with the bone after your master's dinner?" asked Mr
Du Pre, in a severe tone.

"I'm sure I don't know, sir," replied Bobby Smudge, in a long drawl,
worthy of a London professional street-beggar.

"Should you know it again if you saw it?" asked the first-lieutenant.

"Oh yes, sir; I'm sure I should," replied Master Smudge, brightening up
and looking the picture of innocent simplicity.

"Well, my boy, what do you say to this?" said Mr Du Pre, producing the
bone from behind his back.

All eyes turned towards Bobby Smudge: the carpenter's fate hung on his
decision. The young monkey felt his importance, and determined to exert
it. Chissel knew it was the very sort of bone he had scraped not an
hour before. Bobby took it, and, turning it round, examined it
narrowly.

"Oh yes, sir; I'll swear to it, that I will," he exclaimed, holding up
his blistered hand behind his back so that the carpenter might observe
it. "As I was a-trying to get my dinner off it, I notched it with my
knife, I knowed I did, 'cause there was so little meat on it."

"Oh, you wretched young liar," muttered the carpenter, for he dared not
speak aloud; "won't I pay you off, that's all?"

The boy heard him, and gave a grin of defiance.

"Mr Chissel, go to your cabin, and consider yourself under arrest,"
said the first-lieutenant; "I must report this affair to the captain.
The discipline of the ship cannot be thus trifled with; and officers
especially, who ought to know better, must not be allowed to set the men
so bad an example with impunity."

Saying this, Mr Du Pre resumed his walk on the quarter-deck, and I
hurried down to report what had occurred, to my chum Dicky. At first he
was highly delighted at having escaped detection.

"Stop a bit, Dicky," said I; "I don't think you are quite out