"Noa,' he returned, derisively, "thee
knows nowt. That bullock belonged to me.
Now dost 'ee see? It's wull for 'ee that
thy feyther's got a good lang 'ed on his
shoulders."

True enough, in a few weeks an official
communication arrived at Ramborough,
addressed to my father, which contained my
appointment as naval cadet to H.M.S.
Horseleech, seventy-two guns.

As the appointment was accompanied by
an order for me to join my ship, and as the
ship was on the stocks (I believe that was
the term), at the Royal Dockyard of Marsh-
Mallows, on the coast of Essex, I was
immediately provided with a proper outfit by my
father, who congratulated himself upon his
wisdom and forethought, and I started for
my destination.

Marsh-Mallows, which was situated up a
creek, consisted of an irregular cluster of
wooden houses, or huts, that smelt of
seaweed, tar, and shrimps, and were very shaky
in windy weather. The Royal Dockyard
was a large enclosure, surrounded by high
brick walls, containing a flag-staff, a Commodore
Superintendent's residence, a number of
smaller houses for sub-officers and deputy
sub-officers, a couple of store-buildings, a few
old anchors, rotten bowsprits, rusty chain-
cables, and piles of timber, with several
boats and barges; an old ship lying helplessly
high and dry; another, unfinished, floating
clumsily in the water, and several sheds
under which other vessels were supposed to
be in rapid process of construction. It
returned two members to parliament.

I lost no time in presenting my credentials
to the Commodore-Superintendent, who
received me very graciously, in a style half-
landsman, half-retired naval officer.

"Ah," he said, with a loud, gusty sigh,
over some sherry and biscuits which he
produced, "the service now, youngster, isn't
what it was when I was your age."

"Isn't it, sir?" I said, timidly, anxious for
further information.

"They used to appoint us to a vessel
then," he replied, "and let us do as we liked
until she was finished; but now you're sent
down to the yard to hang about an old hull,
to watch every nail that's put into her, and
to learn your duties in shore-going fashion,
until she is finished."

"What's the cause of this change?" I
said.

"What's the cause of it?" he replied,
violently and contemptuously, "Reform Bills
are the cause of it; and they'll ruin the
country if you'll only let 'em. They're the
dearest bills Old England has got to pay."

"No doubt of it, sir," I returned,
nervously, not feeling quite easy under the
conversation.

"I suppose you'll mess with the others?"
he asked.

"With the others?" I repeated.

"Yes," he said, " with the other officers, at
the Saucy Arethusa?"

"I think," I returned, diffidently, "if you
look at the paper, you will find that I am
appointed to the Horseleech."

"There's no Horseleech built yet," he
almost shouted, "and won't be, perhaps, for
some years to come!"

"Oh!" I said.

"The fact is," he explained, "you're
appointed to the plan of a ship, at full-pay;
and, if you take my advice, you'll make
yourself very comfortable with your messmates,
who are appointed in the same way; and
secure a berth at the Saucy Arethusa, which
is the chief hotel, inn, and pothouse in the
town."

I saw he was not a person to be patient
much longer under my inexperience, and I at
once took the hint.

I engaged my quarters at the Saucy
Arethusa, where everything seemed salt, and
smelt fishy, and where my bedroom was all
down hill towards the narrow street, and
everything in it the colour of Spanish
liquorice.

The men who had also been appointed to
the Horseleech were ten in number: nine
naval cadets, and a second-lieutenant; and
they had all got over the novelty of their
position, and were prepared to amuse
themselves with me.

The first morning that I spent in Marsh-
Mallows I devoted to what I considered my
duties. I went to the Dockyard in good
time, and seeing a middle-aged, weather-
beaten, seafaring-looking man leaning on a
post, and staring vacantly into a muddy
dock-basin, I blandly asked him to show me
the way to H.M.S. Horseleech. He turned
his head slowly towards me, closing one eye,
and peeping at me out of the other, while he
rolled a lump of tobacco in his mouth as
large as an apple, and pointed with a thick,
brown forefinger in a straight line over my
head. I followed the direction indicated,
until I came to a large shed, under which
were about half-a-dozen men, as far as I
could make out, driving piles of timber into
the ground. I put the same question to them
as I had put to the taciturn mariner, and
was answered at once by one of the group,
who scarcely stopped his hammer to speak
to me.

"If you're a-lookin' for that vessel, as you
calls it, you'll 'ave to look long enough, for
we only begun 'er this day month."

"I am looking for that vessel," I replied,
with some dignity, "as a junior officer
appointed to watch over her progress."

"Ay, ay," replied the man, with a little
more respect in his tone; "watch away,
then, sir, for 'ere you are."

And I did watch for a few hours, until I
got tired, without becoming much wiser.
When the men went to dinner, punctually at
the ringing of a bell, I examined the work;