You had much better have joined our mess at once.

You're not the first greenhorn that they have plucked.

Well," said he, as he walked away, "keep the key of your own chest--that's all." But as Mr Trotter had warned me that the midshipmen would abuse them, I paid very little attention to what he said.

When he left me I went on the quarter-deck.

All the sailors were busy at work, and the first lieutenant cried out to the gunner, "Now, Mr Dispart, if you are ready, we'll breech these guns." "Now, my lads," said the first lieutenant, "we must slue (the part that breeches cover) more forward." As I never heard of a gun having breeches, I was very anxious to see what was going on, and went up close to the first lieutenant, who said to me, "Youngster, hand me that _monkey's tail_." I saw nothing like a _monkeys tail_, but I was so frightened that I snatched up the first thing that I saw, which was a short bar of iron, and it so happened that it was the very article which he wanted.