THE MAN-OF-WAR'S-MAN.-CHAPTER TENTH.* When the low hollow wail of the squall's strengthening sound, THE next day being Sunday, and the day of muster, moreover, was ushered in with all the pomp that scrubbers, sand, and holystones, could give it. The weather was very unsettled and squally, but as it kept free from rain, everything proceeded in the usual prompt manner to further the execution of the Captain's orders. It was not, however, without the greatest exertion that the decks could be dried up, the hammocks stowed, and the breakfast piped at the usual hour; for the second Lieutenant, who had the morning watch, and who, like most young officers, was very fond of carrying on her, having rather mechanically set to work, as soon as he came on deck, in making all sail as usual, without bestowing a single thought on the very doubtful state of the weather, had met with so many interruptions in the necessity he found himself under of shortening it again, as to be compelled to call in the assistance first of the idlers, and then of all hands, to save his distance, and come within time. At length the word was passed, and the ship's company, after taking a hurried breakfast, were bustling, cleaning, and rigging for divisions and mustering clothes, when a passing squall, which had blown hard for some time before, acquired such a degree of violence, as to compel the officer on deck once more to pipe All hands reef top sails! when certainly such another assemblage immediately hurried on deck as has seldom been witnessed, in any exigence of the service, executing duty. All were bare-headed; some half-shaved; others stripped to the buff-and there were not a few, whose long, bushy, and highly prized hair, wantonly sporting at liberty in the wind, put them in jeopardy of becoming unwilling victims to the pendulous fate of the renowned Nicol Jarvie. Just as they stood, however, they reefed the topsails; and, flurried and breathless, returned as fast as they could to the deck, to resume the now execrated task of decoring their per sons and arranging their clothes previous to the approaching inspection. Notwithstanding every exertion they could make, however, numbers were only half dressed when the Boatswain's pipe trilled for divisions. Captain Switchem, who had been waiting with no small impatience, appeared directly at the top of the companion; and the petty officers having at length succeeded in scolding and frightening the numerous lag-behinds on deck, and reporting all present, he immedi ately commenced a scrutiny into the linens and inner garments of his crew, both on them and off them, and displayed an ability in detecting the numerous petty frauds resorted to by the slothful in eluding his order, and a dexterity in handling and reviewing the various articles, which Dennis Mahony afterwards swore would have done honour to e'er a regular drilled washerwoman in the county of Kerry. Having gone through this necessary but very unpopular piece of discipline, he ordered the people to stow their bags on the booms; then turning to his first Lieutenant, said, with something as near a smile as he could make it, "Pretty fairish, Fyke, all things considered; for, to say truth, the poor devils haven't had too much justice done them either. However, they must thank you, Doeboy, for that; who apparently are formed of such high-flying materials, as never to be happy but when you are tearing through it with the rapidity of a rocket. By mine honour, I shan't pretend even to hint at what consequences may not ensue when our returns are made, for the immense consumpt of both canvass and cordage for this vessel. "Tis a matter which has cost me much vexation, and it grieves Continued from Vol. XIV. P. 282. me not the less that I have had already so much occasion to take the notice I've now done of this ridiculous whim of yours." I don't exactly comprehend your meaning, sir," replied his second Lieutenant, reddening; "but of this I can assure you, that, by my honour, the weather was excellent for this season when I made sail; and as it was so, I really can't see how I should be so very disagreeably reflected on.” "Pshaw! Doeboy, nonsense!-sheer commonplace, my good sir," cried CaptainSwitchem, with unusual animation. "Is not my meaning plain as a pikestaff, when, added to what I daily see with my own eyes, my Boatswain informs me his expenditure is excessive, and his store-room absolutely getting empty; and all this, too, because my third in command must ever be clapping on more canvass than my vessel is able to carry.-Pshaw! again I repeat it, 'twould chafe the very soul of good humour to hear such reasonable and very gentle hints misnomered disagreeable reflections." 66 on "You are getting warm, sir," replied the second Lieutenant, what is certainly a very trifling matter. I merely wished to remark, that I considered myself as acting in strict obedience to your orders when I made sail this morning-I hadn't the smallest intention of giving offence." "Lieutenant Docboy," said the Captain, gravely, "I cheerfully acquit you of any intention to offend me. You are as yet but a young officer, but you have ability; and, with the exception of this unhappy whim, which you are for ever indulging, but of which I hope you will soon see the folly, I will frankly own I have no cause of quarrel with you whatever. In thus stating my complaints, I mean no more offence than you have done; though, I confess, I think it my duty, as your senior officer, to caution you on a matter which may possibly hereafter prove a serious bar to your professional advancement. Regarding obeying my orders, you certainly did so, had the weather been moderate-for I wish to keep my people on the alert in all fair seasons, or when duty calls for it but this you well know was not the case this morning. I was not on deck to be sure-but I was as wide awake then as I am now, and I heard your whole proceedings. Come, come; Lieutenant Doeboy, I will not be interrupted; for again I repeat it, I mean no more by this but friendly caution. Can you stand there, and seriously tell me, that the morning was excellent, or even tolerable, when three minutes did not elapse by my chronometer between your hauling aboard your fore and main tacks, and your clewing them up again?-Nonsense, Mr Doeboy; I won't believe it." The second Lieutenant, a highspirited sprig of quality, had in vain endeavoured, during this petty castigation, to break in upon his Captain's volubility, but without success. As soon, therefore, as the Captain ceased speaking, he evidently betrayed such strong emotions of being only restrained by those invincible barriers which the experience of ages has placed betwixt the commander and commanded of the Navy, from pushing matters to a greater extremity, that Lieutenant Fyke instantly interfered, by inquiring of his Captain, what he meant to make of the crew, who, having stowed their bags, were now standing forward on the deck, huddled together in a mass of confusion and wonderment. Captain Switchem took the hint in an instant. "Thank ye, thank ye, my good Fyke," said he, shaking his first Lieutenant cordially by the hand,-then extending the other to his second, he continued, "A truce to disagreeables, Doeboy. Believe me, I mean all for your good.-Let us rather recollect, gentlemen, that we have more important duty on our hands at present. Hark ye, young Minikin, jump forward and order the Gunner and Carpenter to get the Church ready with all speed. I think we shall have prayers to-day, Fyke-'twill keep the people alive; for I can assure you both, gents, the weather appears both surly and suspicious to my eye; and in that case 'twill be best to use some endeavour to keep them from crawling and slugging below.-Fyke, take you the look-out, and young Pinafore shall attend you. Be so good as hurry the Carpenter, and let me know when you're ready." Mr Fyke, an old experienced aquatic, gave a silent nod of assent as his Captain and second Lieutenant retired. Then walking slowly forward to the main hatchway, he said, "Are you all ready below there?" "In a moment, sir," replied the there, seeing it gives such great offence to our sweet-spoken officer here; rather hoist your half-masters, and haul out your beautiful mugs to their full stretch, like the good folks ashore you know, dears-who walk with their daylights fixed fast on their toes, for all the world as thof they were going for sartain to the Old Fellow, neck and crop." bustling Carpenter." Come, come, men, bear a hand-Place the matchtubs at equal distances as I tould you, and thwart them with them there planks-ay, so now, so.-Now, signalman, do you place your bundle of flags on that there small table, and chuck the union over 'em-'twill make as stylish a desk as e'er a parson's in England-Steward, d'ye hear there, chairs for the gentlemen." "Are you ready yet?" again asked the Lieutenant, impatiently. "All ready, sir?" replied the Carpenter, redoubling his exertions, intermingled with many bear-a-hands and execrations on the awkwardness of his attendants, which it is needless to repeat. Forward, there," bawled the first Lieutenant to all hands," toll the bell. Come, my lads, down, all of you, to prayers. -Boatswain's-mate, see them all down directly." "Ay, ay, your honour," cried Bird, walking forward.-" D'ye hear there, all of you?" continued he, raising his hoarse voice a note or two higher than its usual growl; "down you go to prayers, man and mother's son on you. Come, move along, move along, my hearties!-Blast my toplights! what mongrel cur is that there, who grins and jeers so lustily-mayhap he thinks he hasn't need of prayers, the whoreson!-D'ye here there, old Shetland, will you clap a stopper on that old muzzle of yours, and make less noise, if you please? Can't you recollect, all of you, that you are going to prayers? -Come, heave ahead, forward there -D-n the fellows, they ought to walk one after other as mim and as sulky as old Betty Martin at a fune ral.' "Ay, by my soul, Bird, and you're right there, boy!" cried Dennis, turning round to him with a smile," for then we'd be as wise as the dead was, you know, when he sung as they carried him to church : "Farewell to the Land of Purratoes, my dear! Where I go I don't know, love ;-but, troth, never fear That your Pat shall lack whisky, buttermilk, or good cheer, With a Parson in front, and Ould Nick in his rear," and so forth-Och, county Kerry for ever! say I.-But come, mateys, after all, let's have no grinning forward VOL. XV. "Come, come, Mahony, shut up and belay, if you please," growled the croaking Bird-" or mayhap worse may befall you.-Move along, menHeave ahead there !-Come now, take your seats, and let's have no grinning-for, mind me, the officers will be here in a twinkling." The entrance of Captain Switchem, followed by his officers, put an end to farther discourse; who, having had the splendid Prayer-Book placed before him in the humblest and handsomest manner Mr Fudgeforit could think of, immediately commenced reading the Morning Service, in a voice at once clear, grave, and impressive. Notwithstanding this great advantage, however, in addressing a people, and in prompting them to the noblest service of humanity-notwithstanding an occasional glance from his keen eyes, as though endeavouring to penetrate the phalanx around him, and keep all on the alert-truth compels us to state our honest belief, that a great portion of his praisc-worthy labour was absolutely thrown away. Whether this arose from the fatigues of the morning, from the uncommon snug and comfortable manner in which they were seated, or from the unusual circumstance of hearing only the vibrations of a single voice striking their dull ears, we shall not pretend to say; certain it is, that a very short time elapsed indeed, before the well-meaning reader had as many sleepers as listeners seated around him. Of this, however, he remained in happy ignorance; and, proceeding onward, had got pretty nearly through the confessional, when Master Pinafore suddenly appeared at his elbow, hat in hand. "Dearly beloved brother," whispered Dennis to Edward, with the most laughable solemnity," do pull up your trowsers, and stand by to be moved to divers and sundry places to save your soul alive. By the powers, Ned, now I listen, but there's a fresh hand at the bellows, boy;—and, soul 2 R of me,"-looking round and pointing to the sleepers," but we've a smart and a lively ship's company,-haven't we now, dear?-Och, and the devil, what a kicking of cripples we shall have here directly!" The various squalls which had hitherto passed, seemed, from the result, as well as from the shortness and frequency of their attack, to have been only the light troops of a passing army, loose, straggling, and unconnected; but those which now approached, like the solid columns of the main body, raged with a fury and a violence absolutely appalling. Captain Switchem stopped reading; heard the boy's whisper; hesitated; listened a few moments, then shut the PrayerBook, and hurried on deck. Immediately afterwards the shrill whistle blew, and the Church was instantly transformed into a scene of the utmost confusion and disorder. For the petty officers, who had hitherto sat with the utmost composure, no sooner heard the well-known pipe, than they sprung to their feet with their wonted zeal, and opened full cry on the sleeping and unsuspecting auditors, who, tumbling and floundering over the temporary benches, afforded infinite mirth to the few who had refrained from the indulgence. "Ha, ha, ha!" chuckled our old friend Gilbert, "fa the deyvil e'er saw the like o' this?-A Kirk! forgie us a', it's onything but that, I wyte-It's far liker Luckie Taylor's changehouse on Lerwick key, whan a' the Greenlandmen are daft wi' drinking.-Come, lads, up ye gang there, up ye gangit's just a bit squall, that wull soon blaw by.-Fawad think o' cawing yon a Kirk yet, after a'? Hech, sirs, how this warld changes! though weel I wot it's far frae to the better." "Come, come, my old boy, heave ahead, if you please, and don't stand preaching there," cried a topman, hurrying past Gilbert; "we've had plenty of that there gear already, 'twould appear, for all the good it has done. My eye!" continued he, on reaching the deck, "how tearingly it blows!" "Saul, that it does wi' a vengeance!" -said Gilbert. "Gude faith, lads, ye'll hae your ain job o't, I doubt, or a' be done.-Forgie us, this is terrible!-Wa'd it not been as wise-like, now, think ye, to have been snoddin and making the poor thing a' snug, in stead o' sitting and clavering, and praying, and sleeping below at their nonsense, whan a' thing on deck is fairly gaun gyte?-Hech, sirs! but wilfu folk are unco folk after a' !-They will to Cupar, and they maun to Cupar, in spite o' a' I say. But Lord's sake, Jamie Sinclair! Hear ye me, Jamie, my man!-Jamie Sinclair !" "Well, well, old chap, what's got to say?" said the captain of the top from the rigging; "Come out with it smartly, short and sweet." "Gudesake, callant, clap on your spilling lines as soon as ye get up, or, saul o' me, but the sail will flee in ribbons and flinders the moment it is squared, ye may tak my word for't." "Oho, my old ship, is that all?" replied Sinclair. "Why, my old blade, these toplights of yours are sure and sartain not worth the keeping, and should be returned for old stores, seeing that both the spilling lines and preventer braces have been on now-ay -as good as four hours ago,"-and away he sprung aloft. After a severe conflict with the outrageous canvass, a close reef was at length effected, and the topgallantyards sent on deck. When, the squalls still continuing with unabated fury, the first Lieutenant thundered from the deck-" Fore and main tops, there, strike topgallant masts!" Ay, ay, sir," bawled the captains, cutting away the seizing of the mast ropes,-" Hoist away!" "Look out aloft, then," cried the officer on deck. "Come, my lads, bouse away; bouse, there, bouse!" "Cross-trees, there," cried the captain of the top; "you, Mahony, look out there for the fid.” "For sartain, my darling, and I will," cried Dennis, hammering away on it with a huge marlin-spike, " as soon as it is moveable. By the powers, Ned, there he goes, dear!-On deck there, avast hoisting !-high enough! -high enough!-Take that fox, Davis, and make the fid fast to the neck of the shroud, there's a dear, while I pass this piece of sennet round the heel of the mast.' "Is the fid out?" again resounded from the deck. "Is your grandmother out?" muttered Dennis impatiently." Have you got it made fast, Ned?" "Fast and firm," said our hero. nis to the deck, descending at the same time to lash the heel of it to the topmast. The masts were accordingly lowered, the rigging hauled hand tight, and the topmen at length reached the deck, after a considerable time spent in the most arduous exertion; the striking contrast of which, in a comfortable point of view, tended speedily to recal their exhausted and somewhat subdued spirits. "Well, my dearly beloved Father Gibbie, what's the news, dear?" cried the volatile Dennis, joyfully leaping on deck :-" Whether is it to be prayers again or pase soup ?-for as for being moved about in divers and sundry places any longer, soul of me, but I've got a gutsful of that there already, boy." "News, Denny!"-cried a topman, "Why 'tis to call aft Jack in the Dust directly, and pipe Splice the mainbrace, to be sure. An't that it, Gibbie ?" "Gae wa, gae wa, ye haverel—what for suld it be splice the mainbrace; for a wee gliff o' a bit passing squall that wull be ower ye'vennow?-Na, na, bonny lad! Gude faith, were ye to mainbrace awa in that daft-like fashion in thir rumbling and thrawart seas, ye'd no brace lang, I wyte." "Seas, old boy!" interjected another topman, "why they're the devil's own seas, I believe I wish from the bottom of my soul, we were once more fairly out of 'em." "And far wald ye be pleased to cruise nae, braw lad?” cried Gilbert, somewhat nettled at what he considered a sarcasm on his native seas;-" just takkin't for grantit, ye ken, that ye had your ain wull, like." "By my troth, now, Father Gibbie, but I'll be after answering that for him, dear!" cried Dennis; "for Soulsby, you must know, is quite a goose in the uptake, and twenty to one if he knows what you mane, at all, at allNow I can tell you all about it-faith can I,-just in a rap. If Soulsby had his wish, dear, he would cruise in the never a place but the neighbourhood of Tynecastle;-for there, d'ye see, the girls are all beautifully powdered, both above and below, with the lovely flour of sea-coal. From Tynecastle, honey, he would like a run now and then to the muddled waters of the filthy Thames, in the course of which he would have a glorious opportunity of tearing his topsails in pieces, carrying away a topmast or so, and capsizing in style an ould crazy coal sloop or two and then in the comely, clanely wharfs of Wapping, dear-think of that, my ould boy-amid coalheavers and strong scented girls, and long pipes, and fiddles, and grog to the mast head-Och, soul of me! who'd be like Soulsby, sure!" At this moment such a heavy sea broke over the weather-bow, as not only put a period to Mahony's wit, but, after eapsizing him and the most of his merry fraternity, rolled them aft before it, in sweet confusion, as far as the main-mast. "Fa the deyvil is that at the wheel, Denny?" cried Gilbert, recovering himself, and rising slowly. "Saul o' me, but he's a genus, and should be sent for!" "Who is at the wheel, say you, Gibbie?" returned Dennis, looking aft somewhat sternly; "why, who the devil could it be else, think you, but that huge blubber-headed sea-calf of a countryman of yours, big Lawrenson? By the powers, boy, if I haven't half a mind, now, to go aft directly and kick him away from it.-But there's a time coming "Whisht, Denny; whisht, my man," cried Gilbert, in a subdued tone;"dinna be gaun to tak an ill-will at puir Lawrie, for a bit accident that will happen to the best o'us. Losh, man, ye've nae notion at a' what a thrawn limmer the hooker is, when she likes. I've seen me mony a time just at my wit's-end with her; bobbing and bowting her nose in the water, for a' the world like a demented-and I've heard you say as meikle yoursel'. Sae dinna be gaun to blame puir Lawrie, honest lad, who I'm sure you'll confess to be an excellent timoneer, and ane wha'll play tricks on nae living.-But maybe ye're angry, lad, 'cause your doup's wet. It's no that pleasant, I confess, Denny, for I feel it mysel', to be wet thereabouts; but, guide us, man, ye can gang below and shift yoursel', as I sall do, and all is right again. Deil a-careo-me cares for a wetting now-a-days; just look at thae Osnaburgs I've on, for instance,-them I put on this day clean and clear,-saul! but they're as ready for the scrub-brush as ever." "D-n your Osnaburgs, and scrubber too, honey," cried Mahony, peevish |