“As soon as the boat was partly driven up the beach by the surf, and partly dragged beyond the dash of the breakers by the crowd on shore, this happiest of warrant-officers leaped out on the sand, and seeing the admiral above him, standing on the crest of the natural glacis, which lines the shore, he took off his hat, smoothed down the hair on his forehead, sailor-fashion, and stood uncovered, in spite of the roasting sun flaming in the zenith.
“The admiral, of course, made a motion with his hand for the boatswain to put his hat on, but the other, not perceiving the signal, stood stock still.
“‘I say, put on your hat!’ called the commander-in-chief, in a tone which made the newly-created warrant start. In his agitation he shook a bunch of well trimmed ringlets a little on one side, and betrayed, to the flashing eyes of the admiral, a pair of small, round, silver ear-rings, the parting gift, doubtless, of some favoured and favouring ‘Poll’ or ‘Bess,’ of dear, old blackguard Point Beach, the very ninth heaven of all lighthearted sailors. Be this as it may, the admiral, first stepping on one side, and then holding his head forward, as if to re-establish the doubting evidence of his horrified senses, and forcibly keeping down the astonished seaman’s hat with his hand, roared out,
“‘Who are you?’
“‘John Marline, sir!’ replied the bewildered boatswain, beginning to suspect the scrape he had got himself into.
“‘Oh!’ cried the flag-officer, with a scornful laugh. ‘Oh! I beg your pardon; I took you for a Portuguese.’
“‘No, sir!’ instinctively faltered out the other, seeing the admiral expected some reply.
“‘No? Then if you are not a foreigner, why do you hoist false colours? What business has an English sailor with these trumpery machines in his ears?’
“‘I don’t know, sir,’ said poor Marline. ‘I put them in only this morning, when I rigged myself in my new togs, to answer the signal on shore.’
“‘Then,’ said Sir Samuel, softened by the contrite look of his old shipmate, and having got rid of the greater portion of his bile by the first explosion, ‘you will now proceed to unrig yourself of this top hamper as fast as you can; pitch them into the surf, if you like, but never, as you respect the warrant in your pocket, let me see you in that disguise again.’”