Page:The Naval Officer (1829), vol. 1.djvu/130

 ladder and leave him to finish his discourses to the wind.

Now when this occurred, I was more severely punished than on any other occasion; for, to the neglect of duty, I added contempt both of his rank and the instruction he was offering to me. His wrath was also considerably increased when he only discovered my departure by the tittering of the other midshipmen and the quartermaster at the conn.

One evening, I completed my disgrace with him, though a great deal might be said in my own favour. He had sent me to the fore-top-mast head, at seven o'clock in the morning, and very unfeelingly, or forgetfully, kept me there the whole day. When he went off deck to his dinner, I came down into the top, made a bed for myself in one of the top-gallant studding sails, and, desiring the man who had the lookout to call me before the lieutenant was likely to come on deck, I very quietly began to prepare a sacrifice to my favourite deity,