r; though his firm mouth and the general expression of his
features showed that he was accustomed to command, the pleasant smile
occasionally playing over his countenance relieved them from too great
sternness.

The first lieutenant, Mr Strickland, looked like his chief, the perfect
officer and gentleman, while the second, well known in the service as
Tom Calder, was more of the rough-and-ready school.

Tom was broad-shouldered and short, with an open countenance, and a
complexion which once had been fair, but was now burnt nearly to a
bright copper, but neither winds nor sun had been able to change the
rich golden tint of his hair, which clustered in thick curls under his
hat, which hat he managed to stick on the very back of his head; whether
cocked hat, or tarpaulin, or sou'-wester, he wore it the same; it was a
puzzle, though, to say how it kept there. But to see Tom as he was, was
to catch him at work, with knife and marlin-spike, secured by rope-yarns
round his neck, his hands showing intimate acquaintance with the tar
bucket, while not a job was there to be done which he could not show the
best way of doing.

Tom Calder, as was said of him, was the man to get work out of a crew,
and where he led others were ever ready to follow. Altogether, he was
evidently cut out for a good working first lieutenant, and there seemed
every prospect of his becoming one. He had entered the service at the
hawse-hole, and worked his way up, by his steadiness and gallantry, to
the quarterdeck, a position to which he was well calculated to do
credit.

On the forecastle the three warrant officers sauntered slowly up and
down, stretching their limbs after their day's work was over.

They were accompanied by a fine intelligent-looking boy, apparently of
about fifteen, who was attentively listening to their conversation. The
likeness which the boy bore to one of them, made it pretty evident that
they were father and son.

The boatswain was Rolf Morton. When once pressed into the navy, by the
management of Sir Marcus Wardhill, he had, from want of the energy
required to take steps to leave it, remained in the service till a
warrant had been almost forced on him. Just before the "Thisbe" was
commissioned he had paid a visit to Shetland; he had found his boy
Ronald grown and improved beyond his most sanguine expectations. The
Lady Hilda, as she was still called, had devoted herself to his
education, and treated him as her son;