'Mr O'Brien,' said they all.

'Devil a bit,' replied I, 'it was my forenoon watch.' 'Who relieved you, sir ?' said the first lieutenant.

'Devil a soul, sir,' replied I; 'for they were all too busy with their pork and beef.' 'Then why did you leave the deck without relief ?' 'Because, sir, my stomach would have had but little relief if I had remained.' The captain, who stood by, said, 'Do you see those cross-trees, sir ?' 'Is it those little bits of wood that you mane, on the top there, captain ?' 'Yes, sir; now just go up there, and stay until I call you down.

You must be brought to your senses, young man, or you'll have but little prospect in the service.' 'I've an idea that I'll have plenty of prospect when I get up there,' replied I, 'but it's all to please you.' So up I went, as I have many a time since, and as you often will, Peter, just to enjoy the fresh air and your own pleasant thoughts, all at one and the same time.
"At last I became much more used to the manners and customs of _say_-going people, and by the time that I had been fourteen months off Cape See-see, I was considered a very genteel young midshipman, and my messmates (that is, all that I could thrash, which didn't leave out many) had a very great respect for me.
"The first time that I put my foot on shore was at Minorca, and then I put my foot into it (as we say), for I was nearly killed for a heretic, and only saved by proving myself a true Catholic, which proves that religion is a great comfort in distress, as Father M'Grath used to say.
Several of us went on shore, and having dined upon a roast turkey, stuffed with plum-pudding (for everything else was cooked in oil, and we could not eat it), and having drunk as much wine as would float a jolly-boat, we ordered donkeys, to take a little equestrian exercise.
Some went off tail on end, some with their hind-quarters uppermost, and then the riders went off instead of the donkeys; some wouldn't go off at all; as for mine he would go--and where the devil do you think he went?
Why, into the church where all the people were at mass; the poor brute was dying with thirst, and smelt water.

As soon as he was in, notwithstanding all my tugging and hauling, he ran his nose into the holy-water font, and drank it all up.