o be the first lieutenant, "about as sorry a lot of
Bristol sweepings as ever I saw."

"Not bad men, sir," said the petty officer addressed. "Wait till
they've shaken down into their places."

"Now's your time, Mas' Don," whispered Jem. "Now or never."

Don was on the alert, but just as the officer neared them the vessel
gave a sudden pitch, and of the men standing in a row the minute before,
not one remained upon his feet. For it seemed as if the deck had
suddenly dropped down; and as Don and Jem rolled over into the lee
scuppers, they were pretty well doused by the water that came splashing
over the bows, and when, amidst a shout of laughter from the sailors,
the order was given for them to get up and form in line again, Jem clung
tightly to Don, and said, dolefully,--

"It's of no use, Mas' Don; I can't. It's like trying to stand on
running barrels; and--oh, dear me!--I do feel so precious bad."

Don made no reply, but caught at the side of the vessel, for everything
around seemed to be swimming, and a peculiarly faint sensation had
attacked him, such as he had never experienced before.

"There, send 'em all below," said the officer, who seemed half angry,
half-amused. "Pretty way this is, of manning His Majesty's ships.
There, down with you. Get 'em all below."

Don did not know how he got below. He had some recollection of knocking
the skin off his elbows, and being half dragged into a corner of the
lower deck, where, for three days, he lay in the most abjectly miserable
state, listening to the sighs and groans of his equally unfortunate
companions, and the remarks of Jem, who kept up in his waking moments a
running commentary on the miseries of going to sea.

"It's wuss than anything I ever felt or saw," he muttered. "I've been
ill, and I've been in hospital, but this here's about the most terrible.
I say, Mas' Don, how do you feel now?"

"As if I'd give anything to have the ship stopped, for us to be set
ashore."

"No, no, you can't feel like that, Mas' Don, because that's exactly how
I feel. I am so ill. Well, all I can say is that it serves the captain
and the lieutenant and all the rest of 'em jolly well right for
press-ganging me."

"What do you mean?" said Don, dolefully.

"Why, that they took all that trouble to bring me aboard to make a
sailor of me, and they'll never do it. I'm fit to go into a hospital,
and that's about all I'm fit for. Sailor? Why, I can't even stand
upright