CHAPTER IX.

H.M.S. BRITANNIA

Evil communications corrupt good manners.

1 Cor. xv. 33.

EARLY the next morning Tom Marston was called by his marine servant, who escorted him down to his midshipman's chest to perform his ablutions in a basin of water about three times the size of a soup plate. It was not very luxurious; but the novelty was charming, and as some two hundred other cadets were making their toilette at the same time and place, it did not seem extraordinary.

After breakfast, Tom was told off to a class, which was given in charge of an old petty officer, who took them all round the ship, and pointed out the different objects of interest in a sing-song monotonous voice which was not impressive.

Eventually he gave them permission to go aloft, and soon the whole class was scampering up the rigging, whither the petty officer did not follow, and where they remained until dinner-time.

Directly dinner was over, Dayrell sought out Tom, and invited him to come for a pull in the Fairy. She was one of some dozen four-oared pulling boats provided for the amusement of the naval cadets. They were very pretty boats, and Tom took his place feeling very proud at being selected to form one of the crew; amongst whom was Napier, his old schoolfellow, and Blake, the boy he had boxed with the previous afternoon.

"I hope you are as good a hand at an oar as you are with the gloves," said his late adversary, as Tom stepped into the boat.

"I will do my best; but I have never rowed on the sea before,” replied Tom.

They pulled about the harbour until it was time to return on board, while Lord Rupert Dayrell coached them. He pretended to be a great authority on rowing; but the real truth was that he was very lazy, and much preferred steering to pulling an oar.

In a short time the Fairy had the reputation of having the rowdiest crew in the ship, and they were scarcely ever out of mischief.

One day they came across an old boatman dredging for oysters. Dayrell immediately purchased the dredge, and they tried their luck in the Fairy. They obtained very few oysters; but they filled the boat with mud and seaweed, bits of iron, rope, broken glass, and crockery, which they scraped up from the bottom of the harbour, and returned on board in such a filthy state that the first lieutenant threatened to take the boat away from them.

After this, they did not dare to dredge from the Fairy; but one day they saw a boat on the beach with all the necessary paraphernalia in her; and Tom suggested that they should launch this boat, and tow it astern of theirs, when they could dredge equally well without making their boat in a mess.

Unfortunately the Captain was attending a survey at Haslar Hospital; and, as he was pulling back in the galley, he came across the Fairy and her crew, and caught them in the act. Tom was in the shore boat, and was so busily engaged emptying out the dredge that he did not observe the Captain until he was close alongside. As he admitted that he was the one who had landed and purloined the boat, he was severely punished, and taken out of the Fairy, landing from one of the pleasure-boats being strictly forbidden.

After this Tom's reputation rather suffered. He did not get on with his naval instructor, who had not a good way with boys; and as Tom hated study and was very lazy, he was frequently reported for indolence.

In fact, like many others, he thought that directly

he put on his uniform his days of schooling were over, and that he would never be compelled to do any bookwork again.

Then, his not being allowed to belong to one of the boats obliged him to spend all his spare time on board the ship, and he was constantly in mischief. Bursting with animal spirits, and being very popular, he soon had a following, and led other boys astray. So, by degrees, Master Tom was looked upon by the lovers of law and order as rather a nuisance.

Although hating mathematics, and, in fact, bookwork of any kind, Tom displayed a natural aptitude for seamanship, and in this branch of his profession he soon outdistanced all his class in knowledge. This brought him a good deal under the notice of the lieutenants, who were the instructors in the practical work, with whom he was a favourite; and being strong, active, and willing, he was generally selected for any particular duty which required skilful handling.

Still, Tom's moral conduct did not improve; and being constantly under punishment brought him in contact with some of the really bad characters who did wrong for the sake of wrong, not, as was the case with Tom, from an exuberance of high spirits; for, with all his peccadilloes, he had never committed any offence that could be described as blackguardly or ungentlemanly. He was a little too much inclined to say yes to everything he was asked to do; and made very little effort to resist temptation.

At last he got into a serious scrape. He and two other young scamps were undergoing the punishment of "cockpit mess," which consisted of their being put in a mess by themselves in the lower regions of the ship, far removed from the others, and being treated as pariahs. They were not allowed to mix with the other boys, nor were the other boys permitted to speak to them. Tom's two companions in adversity were several months senior to him in the Britannia,

and were really bad boys; but, for all that, they were uncommonly amusing and pleasant comrades. Their names were Douglas and Evans, and there was very little probability of either of them passing out of the Britannia. Every day they committed some act of rascality; and the ship's corporal who had charge of them was nearly driven wild. The only light they enjoyed was derived from a very small port, cut right in the stern, close up to the deck above. As soon as it became dusk there was not sufficient light to see to read, and they were not permitted to have a lamp. One evening Douglas climbed up and gazed through this small port, to see what was going on in the outside world, and observed a small boat, which was used for attending on the pleasure-gigs, made fast astern. She had evidently been left there temporarily, and forgotten.

Douglas came down from his look-out, and suggested to Tom and Evans that, if the boat were still there later on, they should creep up, unseen, when it was dark, and getting out of one of the lower-deck ports, crawl along outside the ship, and take the boat. ashore and have a lark.

This proposal was warmly approved. And having first turned into their hammocks, and been inspected by the ship's corporal as fast asleep, and possibly out of mischief for the night, they were left in peace. Directly the coast was clear, they turned out; and hurrying on their clothes, crept up the after ladder, and got out of one of the lower-deck ports. There are always sufficient projections on a wooden ship's side to enable an active fellow to hold on, and in fact pass along the whole length of the ship, though the feat is not unattended with risk.

Fortunately for these young scapegraces, they discovered one of the ports in the lower-deck study open, and the room being in darkness, and the door locked for the night, they were in comparative safety, and enabled to make their plans more leisurely. The

study was the original gun-room of the ship, and occupied the whole of the after-part of the deck, having two ports cut in the stern. Through these the youngsters climbed, and getting down by the rudder pendants, they were soon safe in the little dingy.

In a few more minutes they had landed at The Point, and, after hauling their boat some distance up the beach, they sallied forth in quest of amusement.

Standing outside a public-house was a four-wheeled cab. The driver was inside refreshing himself, and no one was looking out for the horse.

Douglas gently took it by the bridle and quietly led it for about fifty yards, unheard by the owner inside, then mounting the box, he called out, "Jump in, lads!" and giving the horse a smart cut with the whip, he started off at a good pace.

At that moment the cabman came out of the pub, and taking in the circumstances of the case at a glance, he gave chase.

Douglas had a good start, and for some time maintained it; but, as he drew near the more crowded parts, he thought discretion the better part of valour, and turning into a quiet, badly-lighted, narrow street, he pulled up, and the trio dismounted and ran off.

After running for some distance they all stopped simultaneously in front of the windows of a welllighted restaurant, and gazed at some splendid cold joints, whose equals are never to be found out of an eating-shop, displayed to tempt the hungry passersby.

"I feel most awfully peckish," observed Tom.
"So do I," said Evans.

"Well, let's go in and have a feed of cold meat and pickles," suggested Douglas.

This proposal was carried nem. con., and soon they found themselves in a little stall, with some generously-filled plates of cold meat and foaming tankards of bitter ale in front of them.

Having done justice to their appetites, and