I began to think a man-of-war a man-of-peace-and-good-will, after all.

But, alas! disappointment came.
Next morning the same old scene was enacted at the gang-way.

And beholding the row of uncompromising-looking-officers there assembled with the Captain, to witness punishment--the same officers who had been so cheerfully disposed over night--an old sailor touched my shoulder and said, "See, White-Jacket, all round they have _shipped their quarter-deck faces again_.

But this is the way." I afterward learned that this was an old man-of-war's-man's phrase, expressive of the facility with which a sea-officer falls back upon all the severity of his dignity, after a temporary suspension of it..