everely. "Then you called me to an
account, and now you acquit me!"

"I beg your pardon. Whatever I said, I did not mean anything
disrespectful," pleaded Robinson.

"Is this the kind of discipline among the officers? If it is, I don't
wonder that the crew get snarled up. I don't like to blow on a fellow,
but I'm tempted to send you to the mainmast."

"I didn't mean anything."

Master Perth turned from his abashed inferior, ascended the main
rigging, and with a few sharp orders, compelled the topmen to unsnarl
the ropes. He was afraid the midshipman would report what he had said
to the captain, and he had attempted to intimidate him into silence by
threatening him with a similar fate.

"On deck!" hailed Perth from the top. "All ready in the main-top, sir,"
he added, when the third lieutenant answered his hail from the waist.

After a delay of half an hour, a like report came down from the fore
and mizzen-tops. The masters returned to their stations on deck, and
everything was in readiness to continue the manoeuvre. Captain Shuffles
was in earnest conversation with Commodore Kendall. A more unsatisfactory
state of things could not exist than that which prevailed on board of
the Young America. The conduct of the crew amounted almost to mutiny.
Those who had maliciously made the mischief, and those who had been
engaged in it from a love of fun, had succeeded in confounding those
who meant to do their duty. It was impossible to tell who were guilty
and who were innocent; for three quarters, at least, of the crew seemed
to be concerned in the confusion.

"It is clear enough that they are hazing me," said Captain Shuffles,
sadly. "I don't know that I have done anything to set the fellows
against me."

"Certainly not," replied Paul, warmly. "You have only done your duty. I
have no doubt those fellows who ran away in the Josephine are at the
bottom of it. If I am not very much mistaken, I saw Howe, on the
main-topsail yard, tangling up the buntlines and sheets."

"I have heard that these fellows intended to get even with me," added
Shuffles, with a smile, as though he had not much fear of them.

"I should keep the crew at work until they did their duty. I would keep
them at it night and day, till they can get the ship under way without
any confusion," added Paul, earnestly.

"I intend to do that, but I do not like to be hard upon them."

"There is no danger of your being too hard."

"Whether I am hard or not, I'm