Shouts of laughter greeted the act—Harry’s the loudest—and he completed his attempt at discipline by calling to Ugly, “Come here, thou pluckiest and smartest of dogs. If you won’t eat sailors’ rations, come feast at the officers’ mess on the luxuries of the fleet. How will that do, eh, old fellow?” cutting him off, as he spoke, a fat slice of mutton. “Another? well there! Bread and butter? Well, there is as much as you can eat;” and Ugly stowed it all away, triumph beaming in his eyes and wagging from his tail.
“Come, boys, now,” said the Captain, “let’s get under way. Cast loose the sails, Alfred and Bob. Drake, stand by to hoist the mainsail. Walter, take the helm. I want you to act as sailing-master this morning. Drake and I will get up the anchor. Is the mainsail ready for hoisting?”
“Aye, aye, sir,” replied Drake.
“Then up with it. There—good!”
“Are your halliards all clear there, boys?”
“Aye, aye, sir,” came from Alf and Bob.
“Hoist the jib, my hearties,” cried the Captain, as the anchor came up. “Keep her head for the old church tower, Walter. There—steady, steady.”
The Captain and Drake now secured the anchor, and the next order given was—
“Now, Alf, another pull on your main halliards. Get them well up. All right? Make fast.”
The Captain lifted his hat and wiped with the bandanna his red forehead. Then he shook out a reef in his suspenders, and threw back his coat. “By golly! my hearties, we are snug now, ship and cargo; and what an air to breathe! I only wish this was a good ship of twelve hundred tons or so, Captain Mugford the skipper, and we were all bound for Calcutta together this splendid morning.”