with a freezing
manner, which somewhat damped the dignity of the lieutenant.

Up the rigging went the three midshipmen, each of them obtaining
possession of a handful of biscuit and a piece of beef to stay their
hunger, as they had a prospect of losing their dinners unless the
captain relented sooner than could be expected. There they all sat on
their lofty perches, occasionally making telegraphic signals to each
other, and not particularly unhappy with their punishment.

The captain and gun-room officers were taking their for noon
quarter-deck walk, and nearly everybody on board was on deck, when a
loud chattering was heard, and who should be seen mounting the mizen
rigging but Quirk, still habited in his red coat, with his hat fixed
firmly on his head, intent, most clearly, on mischief. No sooner did he
get alongside Adair, than, pulling out his handkerchief, he flourished
it vehemently in his face; and then, as if satisfied with the
performance of his lesson, he slid down the mizen topmast stay, and in
an instant after was up again close to Jack, before whom he performed
the same ceremony. Paddy and Jack almost fell from their perches with
laughter, especially when Quirk sprang forward along another stay, and
paid a similar visit to Murray. Everybody on deck was looking on, and
all abaft were amused, with the exception of Lieutenant Spry, who was in
a towering rage, vowing that he would demand a court-martial, and get
the midshipmen, or the monkey, or himself--nobody knew exactly which--
dismissed the ship. The lieutenant shouted out to somebody to catch the
monkey, but as he did not name any one in particular, no one went, and
he had the pleasure of observing his own peculiarity exhibited backwards
and forwards, from mast-head to mast-head, several times in succession.
A joke must have an end; and the captain, seeing that the best way of
bringing this to a conclusion (it being somewhat subversive of
discipline) was to call the midshipmen down, they were allowed to return
once more on deck, while Quirk's new red coat and accoutrements were
seized and hove overboard, to appease the rage of the marine officer.
However, Quirk, having been carefully instructed, lost no opportunity of
exhibiting his talents; and whenever the marines were drawn up, or the
seamen were at divisions, if he happened to be loose, he invariably
appeared in front of them flourishing a piece of canvas, or a bit
of paper, or anything he could