Page:Barbour--For the freedom from the seas.djvu/297



FTER that Tip and Nelson managed to be together a good deal, for although visiting the officers' quarters was something Nelson didn't attempt again, there was nothing to keep Tip from seeking out Nelson. Consequently, when the latter was off watch Tip was always on hand to share his idleness. In the few days that he remained aboard the Gyandotte the young midshipman became a favorite with officers and men alike. He was such a sunny, smiling, happy-go-lucky youth that it would have been impossible not to like him. Nelson suspected that the ship's officers would gladly have kept Tip in the ward-room on many occasions when that youth was down on the lower deck with Nelson or, eagerly curious, following Garey around Number Four gun and listening to the plugman's explanations.

There was just one exciting half-hour on the eastward run, and that came at dusk of the day 272