Just then the orderly swung the port-cabin door open, and standing up as rigid as a pump-bolt, with a finger to the visor of his stovepipe hat, in cross-belts and bayonet, he announced “Lieutenant Hardy and Midshipman Mouse!”
“Ah! Hardy, glad to see you!” rising as he spoke; “squeeze in there between Stewart and Burns, or Darcantel! Here, gentlemen, let me exhibit to you Mr. Tiny Mouse! Don’t move, Piron; I’ll make a place for him near me.”
Saying this, the commodore took the lad affectionately by the hand, and as he sat him down on a chair at his elbow, and while the conversation went on with his guests, he said, in a kindly tone,
“Tiny, my dear, the first lieutenant tells me you are a good boy and attend to your duty. I hope you pay attention to your studies also, and write often to your dear mother. Ah! you do? That is right; for you know you are her only hope since your brave father was killed. There, sir, you may swig a little claret, but don’t touch those cigars.”
“Come, Cleveland! Cleveland! you are forgetting your adventures, my boy!”
“Well, my friends, you shall hear them.”
CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE DEVIL TO PAY.
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“And how then was the devil dressed? Oh! he was dressed in his Sunday’s best; His jacket was red and his breeches were blue, And there was a hole where the tail came through.” “Hairy-faced Dick understands his trade, He stands by the breech of a short carronade, The linstock glows in his bony hand, Waiting that grim old skipper’s command!” |