Page:The Naval Officer (1829), vol. 1.djvu/62

 berth: "As for you, Mr. Fistycuff," said he, addressing himself to me, "you may walk off with the rest of the gang, so make yourself scatce, like the Highlander's breeches." The boys all obeyed the command in silence, and I was not sorry to follow them. As I went out he added, "So, Mr. Rumbusticus, you can obey orders, I see, and it is well for you; for I had a biscuit ready to shy at your head." This affront, after all I had suffered, I was forced to pocket; but I could not understand what the admiral could mean, when he said that people went to sea "to learn manners."

I soon made acquaintance with the younger set of my messmates, and we retreated to the forecastle as the only part of the ship suitable to the nature of the conversation we intended to hold. After one hour's deliberation, and notwithstanding it was the first night I had ever been on board a ship, I was unanimously elected leader of this little band. I became the William Tell of the party, as having been the first