"Now tumble your things out."
"But please, sir, I haven't room to pack them away. I have got this
bundle, and that case, and those other things are all mine."
"Tumble them out!" cried the lieutenant, without attending to my
expostulations.
I obeyed. And the carpenter began sawing away at a line which old
Rough-and-Ready had chalked out not far from the keyhole. Mr Bradawl
had a pretty tough job of it, for the oak was hard. The lieutenant
stood by, watching the proceeding with evident satisfaction. He was
showing me that a first lieutenant was all-powerful on board ship. I
watched this cruel curtailment of my chest with feelings of dismay.
Having sawn it thus nearly in two, the carpenter knocked off the end of
the part he had severed from the rest, and then hammered it on with
several huge nails.
"Now, youngster, pick out the most requisite articles, and send the
others ashore, or overboard, or anywhere, so that they're out of the
ship," exclaimed the first lieutenant; saying which he turned away to
attend to some other duty, leaving me wondering how I should stow the
things away. Tom Pim, who had seen what was going forward, came up to
my assistance; and by putting the things in carefully, and stamping them
down, layer after layer, we managed to stow away more than I had
conceived possible.
"I think I could find room for some of them in my chest, as we have been
to sea for some time, and a good many of my own have been expended; and,
I daresay, the other fellows will be equally ready to oblige you," said
Tom.
I was delighted at the proposal, and hastened to accept it,--but I
didn't find it quite so easy to get them back again! Tom, however, soon
smelt out the cake. At first he suggested that it would be safe in his
chest, but Chaffey coming by, also discovered it; and though he was most
anxious to take charge of it for me, Tom, knowing very well what would
be its fate, insisted on its being carried into the berth. I need
hardly say that by the end of tea-time it had disappeared.
I had no difficulty in finding Larry, when I at length set forth in
quest of him. The sound of his fiddle drew me to the spot, where,
surrounded by a party of admiring shipmates, he was scraping away as
happy as a prince. On catching sight of me, he sprang out of the
circle.
"Och, Misther Terence, I'm mighty glad to see you; but shure I didn't
know you at first in your new clothes. I hope you like coming to sea as
much as myself. Shure it's rare fun we're having in this big ship; and
is his honour the major gone home again?"
I told him that I concluded such was the case, and how pleased I was to
find that he liked his life on board,--though it didn't occur to me at
the time that not having as yet been put to perform any special duty, he
fancied he was always to lead the idle life he had hitherto been
enjoying. We were both of us doomed ere long to discover that things
don't always run smoothly at sea.