It is a sweet thing, thought I, to see these officers confess a human brotherhood with us, after all; a sweet thing to mark their cordial appreciation of the manly merits of my matchless Jack.

Ah! they are noble fellows all round, and I do not know but I have wronged them sometimes in my thoughts.
Nor was it without similar pleasurable feelings that I witnessed the temporary rupture of the ship's stern discipline, consequent upon the tumult of the theatricals.

I thought to myself, this now is as it should be.

It is good to shake off, now and then, this iron yoke round our necks.

And after having once permitted us sailors to be a little noisy, in a harmless way--somewhat merrily turbulent--the officers cannot, with any good grace, be so excessively stern and unyielding as before.