“‘Oh, mother, mother!’ she cries out presently, ‘I’ve caught a midshipman.’
“‘Throw him in, my dear, he’s no good,’ answered the old lady.
“Presently another sings out, ‘Mother, I’ve got a bite. I’m sure it’s from a lieutenant, from the way he pulls.’
“‘Let him hang on a little, my dear,’ says the mother; ‘may be if you see a commander or a post-captain swimming by, you may cast him off, and hook one of the others instead.’
“Presently a fourth cries out, ‘Oh, mother, I’ve hooked a captain!’
“‘Run, Jane, run, and help your sister to land him,’ cries Mrs Thingamebob; and just see the way they’re doing it, so as not to frighten him, and make him turn tail.
“At last another shouts, ‘Mother, I’ve hooked a master’s mate.’
“‘Then go and cut the line, Susan. Don’t let Nancy land that brute, on any account. He’s the worst of the lot.’
“And so it goes on,” exclaimed old Grumpus. “However, to my mind they’re all alike. Why, while we have been there a dozen officers from different ships have been and got spliced. It’s lucky for you fellows that you were not there long, or you would have been and done it, and repented it all your lives afterwards.”
During the voyage old Grumpus brought out his sketch a score of times, and repeated his story as often, with numerous variations, which afforded us all much amusement. He had anecdotes of other descriptions without end to tell, most of them hingeing on the bad way the junior officers of the service were treated. He didn’t say that most of those junior officers were rough diamonds like himself, who would have been much better off if they had not been placed on the quarter-deck.