must pretend that you are not well, take some of his quack
medicine, and then he will allow you a run on shore to work it off."

"Oh! that's it, is it? well then, as soon as we anchor in Valette, I'll
go through a regular course, but not till then."

"It ought to suit you, Jack; it's an equality medicine; cures one
disorder just as well as the other."

"Or kills--which levels all the patients. You're right, Gascoigne, I
must patronise that stuff--for more reasons than one. Who was that
person on deck in mufti?"

"The mufti, Jack? in other words, the chaplain of the ship; but he's a
prime sailor, nevertheless."

"How's that?"

"Why, he was brought up on the quarter-deck, served his time, was acting
lieutenant for two years, and then, somehow or other, he bore up for the
church."

"Indeed--what were his reasons?"

"No one knows--but they say he has been unhappy ever since."

"Why so?"

"Because he did a very foolish thing, which cannot now be remedied. He
supposed at the time that he would make a good parson, and now that he
has long got over his fit, he finds himself wholly unfit for it--he is
still the officer in heart, and is always struggling with his natural
bent, which is very contrary to what a parson should feel."

"Why don't they allow parsons to be broke by a court-martial, and turned
out of the service, or to resign their commissions, like other people?"

"It won't do, Jack--they serve Heaven--there's a difference between that
and serving his Majesty."

"Well, I don't understand these things. When do we sail?"

"The day after to-morrow."

"To join the fleet off Toulon?"

"Yes; but I suppose we shall be driven on the Spanish coast going there.
I never knew a man-of-war that was not."

"No; wind always blows from the South going up the Mediterranean."

"Perhaps you'll take another prize, Jack--mind you don't go away without
the articles of war."

"I won't go away without Mesty, if I can help it. Oh, dear, how
abominable a midshipman's berth is after a long run on shore! I
positively must go on deck and look at the shore, if I can do nothing
else."

"Why, ten minutes ago you had had enough of it."

"Yes, but ten minutes here has made me feel quite sick. I shall go to
the first lieutenant for a dose."

"I say, Easy, we must both be physicked on the same day."

"To be sure; but stop till we get to Malta."

Jack went on deck, made acquaintance with the chaplain and some of the
o