to entertain that sorrowful
possibility. As with many a prophecy, his was of wider scope than he
thought; and, though in part fulfilled, more yet remains on the laps
of the gods. He himself, perhaps the ablest of this group, was cut off
too early to contribute more than an heroic memory; but that must live
in naval annals, enshrined in his father's phrase, along with Craven's
"After you, pilot," when the _Tecumseh_ sank.

VI

MY FIRST CRUISE AFTER GRADUATION--NAUTICAL SCENES AND SCENERY--THE
APPROACH OF DISUNION

1859-1861

The absence of the _Congress_ lasted a little over two years, the
fateful two years in which the elements of strife in the United States
were sifting apart and gathering in new combinations for the
tremendous outbreak of 1861. The first battle of Bull Run had been
fought before she again saw a home port. The cruise offered little
worthy of special note. This story is one of commonplaces; but they
are the commonplaces of conditions which have passed away forever, and
some details are worthy to be not entirely forgotten, now that the
life has disappeared. We were in contact with it in all its forms and
phases; being, as midshipmen, utilized for every kind of miscellaneous
and nondescript duty. Our captain interfered very little with us
directly, and I might almost say washed his hands of us. The
regulations required that at the expiry of a cruise the commander of a
vessel should give his midshipmen a letter, to be presented to the
board of examiners before whom they were shortly to appear. Ours,
while certifying to our general correct behavior--personal rather than
official--limited himself, on the score of professional
accomplishments, which should have been under constant observance, to
saying that, as we were soon to appear before a board, the intent of
which would be to test them, he forbore an opinion. This was even
more non-committal than another captain, whose certificates came under
my eye when myself a member of a board. In these, after some very
cautious commendation on the score of conduct, he added, "I should
have liked the display of a little more zeal." Zeal, the readers of
_Midshipman Easy_ will remember, is the naval universal solvent.
Although liable at times to be misplaced, as Easy found, it is not so
suspicious a quality as Talleyrand considered it to be in diplomacy.

Our captain's zeal for our improvement confined itself to putting us
in three watches; that is, eve