such a degree that he would have turned out a likely enough crew from
much worse material; while he `got to win'ard' of the engineers so
cleverly that they never grumbled at any orders he gave--unlike those
gentry in general--thus enabling us to pile on steam and make the
passage out from England in far less time than we expected, there being
no complaints from the stokehold of `leaking tubes' and `priming'
boilers necessitating our having to `slow down.'

After passing through the Gut of Gibraltar, we made for Malta; which
place seems to have such a magnetic attraction for our men-of-war, both
homeward and outward bound, that none by any chance ever gives it the
go-by, there being always some little defect to `make good,' or
despatches to wait for, or letters to post, or something that obliges
them to cast anchor in Valetta harbour, if they are only allowed to
remain an hour or two!

We fortunately stopped here for three days; and, though the men
generally were not given leave ashore, Larrikins and I, being both in
the first cutter, we had the chance of landing more than once.

We had a bit of fun, too, on one of these occasions when going up the
Nix Mangiare stairs, leading up from the place where the men-of-war
boats put in to the town above.

These stairs are so named, it may be explained for the benefit of those
who have not been there, from being the haunt of a number of beggars who
frequent the steep ascent, demanding alms of all bluejackets and others
that may chance to pass up or down, their whining plea being that they
have nothing to eat-- "Nix mangiare, buono Johnny, nix mangiare!"

We had already been accosted by three or four of these chaps, to each of
whom we had given a trifle, moved by their poverty-stricken appearance
and Maltese whine; when, on reaching the top of the steps, an old
fellow, who from his venerable look seemed above that sort of thing,
repeated a like request to his compeers lower down the stairs, holding
out the palm of a lean clawlike hand resembling one of Jocko's paws.

"No, no, that won't wash," said Larrikins, in a chaffy way, catching
hold of a fine-looking malacca cane the old fellow was leaning on, and
which seemed more fit for a grand seignior than a beggar. "None of your
bono johnnies with me, you old reprobate. Yer oughter be ashamed on
yerself, yer ought, axing fur charity from poor sailors like we--you
with this fine walkin'-stick here, good enough for `old Hankey P