One morning, when he and Derval were in the middle watch (i.e. from 12 to 4 A.M., as the ship was nearing the Azores), the latter, overcome by the heavy saline atmosphere of the sea, by youth and the lateness of the hour, began insensibly to doze, with his head resting on the gunnel of the quarter-deck, and in a kind of half-waking dream he thought himself at Finglecombe: young rabbits scudded past in the grass; the hum of the wind in the rigging aloft, suggested that of bees and insects in the sunshine, and the air seemed to become laden with the familiar fragrance of the apple orchards and garden flowers, till a heavy thwack from the new colt of the inevitable Mr. Paul Bitts awoke him with a nervous start.
"Sleeping are you—on your watch, too! You'll come to the gallows, you young villain!" exclaimed his senior officer, with a malicious gleam in his closely set and serpent-like eyes; "that will teach you to snore like one of Circe's swine. Now go to windward—keep a bright look-out for the revolving light on Cape Flyaway, and if you see the great sea-serpent, don't forget to call the morning watch."
And, with a chuckle, he coiled away the colt in a pocket of his pea-jacket.
"Keep your weather-eye open," he added in a bullying tone; "and don't let me catch you, in the dark, stealing eggs out of the hen-coops!"
"Please, sir," said Derval, rubbing his shoulders, "I never was a thief."
"But thieving begins sometimes, and opportunity is the devil's game."
Under the special tutelage of Joe Grummet, who conceived a great regard for him, Derval, in conjunction with little Tom Titford, learned to hand, reef and steer, to mount away aloft with ease and confidence, and with both to lie out on the arms of a topgallant yard; to use the marling-spike, to splice and knot, and make a grummet. He knew the name of every part of the ship, of every spar and of all the standing and running rigging; for he had great aptitude, and proved a smart scholar at this kind of work; thus, in a little time, it was evident that he would be able to take sights, work a reckoning by log and compass, and calculate variation and leeway. He was taught how to be ready for any emergency of wind or weather; to consider nothing too trivial for consideration, and to remember, as Joe said, "how a little leak may sink a great ship."
Yet his sweet boyish nature still remained; and now, when far away at sea, he thought, in the warmth of his affection, of the handsome pipe he would "bring home for papa"; of the beautiful shells for his little half-brother; and he had visions, too, of a wonderful cap, all over ribbons, for old Patty Fripp.
Overhead the sky was now of the cerulean blue that England never knew, and never will know.
Captain Talbot made his men strictly observe the "clean-shirt-days," as the sailors call Thursday and Sunday; on the latter he always read prayers at the capstan-head to his crew, who were sure to be neatly dressed, and there was much of that silence which prevails in a man-of-war on that day.