some things at least, relieves men from nervous anxieties. But we
all are Fatalists at bottom. Nor need we so much marvel at the heroism
of that army officer, who challenged his personal foe to bestride a
barrel of powder with him--the match to be placed between them--and be
blown up in good company, for it is pretty certain that the whole earth
itself is a vast hogshead, full of inflammable materials, and which we
are always bestriding; at the same time, that all good Christians
believe that at any minute the last day may come and the terrible
combustion of the entire planet ensue.

As if impressed with a befitting sense of the awfulness of his calling,
our gunner always wore a fixed expression of solemnity, which was
heightened by his grizzled hair and beard. But what imparted such a
sinister look to him, and what wrought so upon my imagination
concerning this man, was a frightful scar crossing his left cheek and
forehead. He had been almost mortally wounded, they said, with a
sabre-cut, during a frigate engagement in the last war with Britain.

He was the most methodical, exact, and punctual of all the forward
officers. Among his other duties, it pertained to him, while in
harbour, to see that at a certain hour in the evening one of the great
guns was discharged from the forecastle, a ceremony only observed in a
flag-ship. And always at the precise moment you might behold him
blowing his match, then applying it; and with that booming thunder in
his ear, and the smell of the powder in his hair, he retired to his
hammock for the night. What dreams he must have had!

The same precision was observed when ordered to fire a gun to _bring
to_ some ship at sea; for, true to their name, and preserving its
applicability, even in times of peace, all men-of-war are great bullies
on the high seas. They domineer over the poor merchantmen, and with a
hissing hot ball sent bowling across the ocean, compel them to stop
their headway at pleasure.

It was enough to make you a man of method for life, to see the gunner
superintending his subalterns, when preparing the main-deck batteries
for a great national salute. While lying in harbour, intelligence
reached us of the lamentable casualty that befell certain high officers
of state, including the acting Secretary of the Navy himself, some
other member of the President's cabinet, a Commodore, and others, all
engaged in experimenting upon a new-fangled engine of war. At the same
time