“Well,” said French, “we’ll have to go with you under water the first chance we get, and I guess we can teach you a thing or two.”
Billy answered these questions with a deliberate air and without any evidence of being ill at ease. He evidently was in the habit of thinking before he spoke, and carefully listening to what was said; and, although his carriage was poor and his physique not particularly strong, French liked the clear, steady look in his eyes.
As Billy was turning away, the “B. M.” called after him, “Say, young fellow, have you put your things into your locker and got them in order yet?”
“Yes,” replied Brown.
“Well,” said the “B. M.”, looking at his watch, “we’ve got twenty-five minutes before prayers, and I guess we can go forward and have ten minutes’ drill.”
Then he turned for a minute to Dick Gray who had just returned on board, and said in an undertone: “You just keep an eye on him, Dick, and show him the ropes.”
At that moment there happened to be nobody on the forward deck, so that French and Billy and Dick had it all to themselves. French gave his commands in a comparatively subdued voice, so as not to attract a crowd, and then suggested to Brown a few simple ideas about the attitude of respectful attention and the significance of it in the daily life of a scout, while Dick took the position to illustrate what French meant.
Billy was rather awkward, and his large round eyeglasses and prominent ears gave him a queer look of somehow being out of place in his new surroundings; but French noticed that he seemed to enjoy the drill and to take a genuine interest in what he was being taught.
“Heels together, little finger on the seam of your trousers, chest up, stomach in,—don’t bend backwards, balance on the instep—neck straight, chin in. There, sonny, that’s the way you want to hold yourself at quarters, or any time ‘at attention.’ But you can’t expect to do it easily without teaching your body to be strong in the right places. You seem kind of soft now, and here’s a little medicine that will help harden you a bit.”
Then he and Dick showed him an exercise in deep breathing and stretching. “Do that six times, two or three times a day, and I guess it will give you a lift,” said French.