for Barbados, starting off
out of Santa Cruz harbour before a spanking ten-knot breeze in line of
single column ahead, the old _Active_ leading and showing her heels to
our less speedy consorts.

This was early in the month of December, the weather being beautiful and
balmy, as it continued all the time we were bowling across the Atlantic
on our way to our goal, the West Indies; and, as we enjoyed the warmth
of the southern latitudes through which our good ship ploughed her way,
Mick and I could not help contrasting our surroundings with those of the
poor folk at home shivering in all the dreariness of an English mid-
winter, when, if it isn't freezing or snowing or hailing, it is bound to
be raining--a cold, raw, nasty sort of rain--and damp and foggy and
dirty, at all events, such being the pleasurable conditions of our
delightful climate usually at that time of year!

With us, now, things were very different!

A blue sky above, unflecked by a single cloud, was reflected in a sea
that was yet more blue, its hue turning to azure as we approached
farther west in the tropics; until, on reaching the confines of the
Caribbean Sea, the colour of the water verged into that of the purest
ultramarine.

Day after day the scene was ever the same--blue sky above, blue sea
below; while a bright sun shone down, ever lighting up both sky and sea
with a sort of opal glow and lending warmth to the buoyant,
exhilarating, champagne air.

Under these circumstances, washing decks every morning used to be a
positive pleasure to everybody on board, as we careered about in our
bare feet with our trousers rolled up above the knee, when the cold
water, instead of being `moighty onpleasint,' as Mick would have said,
was gratifying in the extreme.

Such of the officers, too, who had not been on duty keeping the middle
watch, used to turn out in their oldest pyjamas, accompanied by most of
the midshipmen, when we were at this task and have a regular sluice down
on the forecastle; some of them catching hold of the hose and playing it
on each other in turn, skylarking and making no end of fun.

Our drills, of course, went on all the time in the usual clockwork
fashion observed on board ship, `quarters' and `divisions' and all the
rest; all of the men and boys belonging to the ship's company being
polished up quite as smartly as the brasswork and drilled to the highest
state of efficiency.

It was not all work, though, on board the _Activ