, too?"

"Yes, two years old--fine boy--always laughed when the guns were fired,
while his mother stood on the ladder and held him on the top of the
booby-hatch."

"I wonder that Mrs Oxbelly let you come here now?"

"So you would, sir, but I'll explain that--she thinks I'm in London
about my half-pay. She knows all by this time, and frets, I don't
doubt; but that will make her thin, and then there will be more room in
the bed. Mrs Oxbelly is a very stout woman."

"Why you are not a little man!"

"No, not little--tending to be lusty, as the saying is--that is, in good
condition. It's very strange that Mrs Oxbelly has an idea that she is
not large. I cannot persuade her to it. That's the reason we always
spar in bed. She says it is I, and I know that it is she, who takes the
largest share of it."

"Perhaps you may both be right."

"No, no, it is she who creates all the disturbance. If I get nearer to
the wall she jams me up till I am as thin as a thread-paper. If I put
her inside and stay outside, she cuts me out as you do a cask, by the
chine, till I tumble out of bed."

"Why don't you make your bed larger, Mr Oxbelly?"

"Sir, I have proposed, but my wife will have it that the bed is large
enough if I would not toss in my sleep. I can't convince her. However,
she'll have it all to herself now. I slept well last night, for the
first time since I left the _Boadicea_."

"The _Boadicea_?"

"Yes, sir, I was second lieutenant of the _Boadicea_ for three years."

"She's a fine frigate, I'm told."

"On the contrary, such a pinched-up little craft below I never saw.
Why, Mr Easy, I could hardly get into the door of my cabin--and yet, as
you must see, I'm not a large man."

"Good heavens! is it possible," thought Jack, "that this man does not
really know that he is monstrous?"

Yet such was the case. Mr Oxbelly had no idea that he was otherwise
than in good condition, although he had probably not seen his knees for
years. It was his obesity that was the great objection to him, for in
every other point there was nothing against him. He had, upon one
pretence and another, been shifted, by the manoeuvres of the captains,
out of different ships, until he went up to the Admiralty to know if
there was any charge against him. The First Lord at once perceived the
charge to be preferred, and made a mark against his name as not fit for
anything but harbour duty. Out of employment, he had taken the command