excellent spirits, and as they drew
nearer and nearer became more and more anxious for the fray.

"She's a big one, ain't she?" said one young seaman, glancing over a
gun through a port-hole forward; "but we ain't afraid of her, mates.
We 'll just dance up and slap her in the face with this, and then turn
around and slap her with t' other side," laying his hand at the time on
one of the long eighteens which constituted the main battery of the
frigate.

"Yes, and then what will she do to us? Blow us into splinters with a
broadside, youngster! Not as I particularly care, so we have a chance
to get a few good licks at her with these old barkers," said an older
man, pointing, like the first, to a gun.

"That's the talk, men," said Seymour, who was making a tour of
inspection through the ship in person, and who had stopped before the
gun and heard the conversation. "Before she sinks us we will give it
to her hard. I can depend upon you, I know."

"Yes, yes, your honor."

"Ay, ay, sir--"

"We 's all right, sir--"

"We 's with you, your honor--" came in a quick, strong chorus from the
rough-and-ready men, and then some one called for three cheers for
Captain Seymour, and they were given with such a will that the oak
decks echoed and re-echoed again and again.

"Pass the word to serve out a tot of grog to each man; let them splice
the main-brace once more before they die," said Seymour, grimly, amid a
chorus of approving murmurs from the sailors, as he walked slowly along
the lines, greeting men here and there with plain, bluff words of
cheer, which brought smiles of pleasure to their stern, weather-beaten
faces.

"Now, ain't he a beauty?" whispered the captain of number two gun to
his second. "Blow me if 't ain't a pleasure to serve under sich a
officer, and to die for him, too! Here is to a speedy fight and lots
of damage to the Britisher," he cried loudly, lifting his pannikin of
rum and water to his lips, amid a further chorus of approval.

Old Bentley was standing on the forecastle forward, looking earnestly
at the approaching ship, when Seymour came up to him. The rest of the
men, mindful of the peculiar relationship between the two,
instinctively drew back a little, leaving them alone.

"Well, Bentley, our work is cut out for us there."

"Ay, Captain Seymour. I 'm thinking that this cruise will end right
here for this ship--unless you strike, sir."

"Strike! Do you advise me to do so, then?"