plentiful dinner,
the boiled beef and biscuit the boy had lately placed on the table.
When spoken to, he scarcely looked up, but continued cramming mouthful
after mouthful down his throat, while his eyes rolled round and round;
and more than once he gazed at the door, contemplating evidently how he
could most quickly make his escape on deck. Alick Murray meantime
leaned back at the end of the berth, with a book in his hand, under the
impression that he was reading; but his head ached; his dinner had been
untasted, and, though his eyes may have seen the letters, they conveyed
no impression to his brain. The rest of the members of the mess were
variously employed. Some were writing up their logs; others doing their
day's work; a few reading, and some were discussing subjects, if not
very erudite, at all events, apparently highly amusing to themselves,
from the peals of laughter they occasionally elicited. Two youngsters
were having a quiet little fight in the corner, pummelling each other's
heads to their hearts' content, till brought to order by a couple of
books aimed scientifically across the berth by old Hemming, the senior
mate of the mess, who, from constant practice, was very perfect in that
mode of projecting missiles. There were several other passed mates in
the berth, and two assistant-surgeons--one of them old enough to be the
father of any of the youngsters--and a second master and a master's
assistant, and the captain and purser's clerks, and three or four other
midshipmen of various ages. All of them did not belong to the frigate,
but some were supernumeraries going out to other ships on the station.
The fathers of some present were of high rank, and they had been
accustomed to all the luxuries wealth can give, while others were the
sons of poor men, officers in the army and navy, who had little beyond
their pay on which to depend. Altogether they formed a very
heterogeneous mass, and a strict system of discipline was required to
keep them in order. Captain Lascelles, who commanded the _Racer_, was
an officer and a gentleman in the true sense of the word, and he wished
that all the officers under his command should deserve the same
character. Those belonging to the gun-room were mostly men of this
description, but one or two scarcely came up to it. Of these one was
the lieutenant of marines. He formed an exception to the general
character won by that noble corp--for a braver and more gallant set of