*CHAPTER V*
*Midshipman Ford’s First Command*
The Junk—H.M.S. "Sally"—"Here’s Luck to the ’Sally’"—Ready to
Start—Under Way—In Command—Night at Sea—The Strange Junk
_Written by Midshipman Ford_
If anybody had told me a week ago that by this time I should be captain
of my own ship, I should have called him a blithering Ananias, and
probably punched his head if he was anything like my size, and made him
jolly sorry for trying to pull my leg.
But there it is. I am the captain of the _Sally_, converted junk, two
guns, tender to H.M.S. _Ringdove_, and who, do you think, is my first
lieutenant? Why, Dicky Morton, "Dear Little Dicky" of all chaps in the
world, and he’s turning out not to be half such a silly fool as he
looks—I often tell him so, just to buck him up.