CHAPTER XII.

IN

N a few weeks, Richard Boothby began to feel at home in his new life.

He had passed

through his seasoning of sea-sickness, and got his 'sea legs;' and having, as I said before, discovered that an apprentice at sea has no option but to obey orders implicitly, he found it his wisdom to succumb; and, in spite of bad weather, disturbed sleep, and hard fare, began to find some kind of satisfaction in the work in which he was now constantly employed. He had hitherto slept in the forecastle, and messed with the men; had battled through his season of sickness as well as he could by himself, and had learned to put up with the fact that until he had, by his own skill and good behaviour, earned superiority for himself, he would be allowed none on board ship; and this was a good school for him. During this time he had learned much of the names of ropes, masts, spars, blocks, and the mysteries of reefing and steering; and, being quick and ambitious, was so apt a pupil that the boatswain was rather proud of him, and

generally chose him for work which was likely to bring a smart fellow into notice.

Up to this time Richard had come very little in contact with the Captain, and if he ever thought of him, imagined that his promise to his father was a mere matter of words, and that he was not likely to take more notice of him than he had hitherto done. In this he was, however, mistaken. Captain Bullock knew all about him, and had purposely let him alone in his early training, till he considered him far enough advanced to take him in hand; and he had taken a better measure of his pupil's character than Richard would at first have given him credit for.

As soon as our hero showed symptoms of steady obedience and content, he was, with his fellow-apprentice, moved into the steerage, and brought more immediately under the eye of the Captain, who began to teach them navigation, and practised them regularly in the working of the ship; and Richard, who had at first looked down on his master as an inferior, under-bred man, now yielded him involuntarily his respect, and rendered him more sincere obedience than he had given to any one since he was under the care of Dr. Babbage.

Captain Bullock was an earnest, undemon

strative Christian, and his ship was ordered as that of such a man should be. There was no swearing allowed, and astonishingly little attempted. Morning prayers were read by the Captain every day that weather permitted, and instead of allowing Sunday to be employed in mending clothes, or washing them, as in the case of most ships, half Saturday was set apart for that purpose, and Sunday was emphatically a day of rest, hallowed by a service in the morning, and at least quietness and tranquillity for the remainder of the day. Jack, with all his faults, respects consistency, and is especially tenacious of his right to the day of rest; consequently, as the men on board the Coalpit saw that their 'skipper' respected their privileges, they respected him in their turn; and the obedience yielded him was at once cheerful and prompt.

Richard was generally a favourite on board, though his pride and occasional insolence had made him one or two enemies, one of whom was the ship's carpenter, and another Silvio, or St. Peter, as the sailors called him.

Richard never lost an opportunity of joking Silvio on his beads and crucifix, which he always guarded most jealously, diligently counting them during the short prayers to

which all hands were summoned; and on Sundays, in spite of his better feelings, and a serious rebuke he once received from his Captain on the occasion of a quarrel which originated in one of these unfeeling taunts, he lost no opportunity of irritating the poor man for the fun of seeing his excitability.

Things were in this state when, one Sunday morning, in a giddy humour, during the middle watch, Richard laid a plan, with his fellowapprentice, Tom Barton, to deprive Silvio of his beads. They were standing together near the ship's side, when Richard began speaking very quietly, Look here, Tom, we'll have some fun this morning with St. Peter. When I was in the forecastle I got to know where he keeps his precious beads at night. I'll go down and call the watch directly, and then I'll manage to get hold of them, and when he's away I'll hang up this instead of his crucifix. Fair exchange is no robbery, you know.'

'What is that?" asked Barton, vainly endeavouring in the uncertain light to discern anything, beyond a piece of paper, in the article his friend held before him, which when seen by daylight, was nothing else than a wretched, dirty-coloured valentine, of the most vulgar description, which he had somehow procured from one of the men.

'Don't you know that lovely Venus we were joking Filton about?' said Richard.

'Oh that,' said Barton, with a smothered

laugh. Eh, what fun! I should like to see Peter when he misses his rosary; what a wax he'll be in. You mustn't let him

"You lads!' shouted a voice from the quarterdeck, Haul the weather-clew of the mainsail up!'

The lads flew to obey orders, the valentine was shoved into Richard's pocket, and until the watch went below he had no further opportunity of taking counsel with his chum. It was not very long before the watch was ended, and Richard managed to carry out his desire of calling the next. He entered the forecastle very softly, and stole up to the Italian's berth. Though every object was perfectly distinct above, it was quite dark below; but he knew his way well about, and in a minute after reaching the berth, had his hand under the Italian's head, and abstracted the rosary at the moment that he shook him to arouse him with a sonorous'Rouse out-rouse out!'

'Hallo, my lad!' exclaimed one of the men, 'is that you hollering out over Peter? You're in a tender mood-quite tender-like, over Peter. Peter, he wants to give you the start of us;