“What do you think of the ship?” he asked cheerfully.

“Rotten slow lot,” replied the A.P.; “I tried to make things hum a bit at lunch and they all sat looking like stuffed owls.”

“Ah, you’ll find it different this evening after the Commander has gone.  Bad form to tell smoking-room yarns while he’s here.”

Meanwhile the First Lieutenant visited the Commander in his cabin.

“Very well,” said the latter on parting; “only mind, no unnecessary violence.”

“I understand, Sir.  I hope it won’t be necessary.”

The Assistant Paymaster had no cause to complain of lack of hilarity at dinner.  The most trivial remark was greeted with roars of merriment.  When the KING’S health had been drunk the Commander pleaded letters and left the ward-room.  Instantly a perfect babel arose.  Everyone seemed to be asking everyone else to have a drink.  The newcomer selected a large whisky.

“Wilkes,” said the First Lieutenant, “one large whisky, one dozen soda, one dozen ginger-beer and two large bottles of lime-juice.”

“Large bottles, you blighter!” he yelled after the back of the astonished marine who went out to fulfil this remarkable order.

“Now,” said the Junior Watchkeeper, when all the glasses had been filled, “I call on Number One for a song.”  Amid vociferous applause the First Lieutenant, clasping a huge tumbler of ginger-beer, rose unsteadily.  Without the semblance of a note anywhere he proceeded to bawl “A frog he would a-wooing go.”  A prima donna at the zenith of her fame might have envied his reception.  The Junior Watchkeeper broke half the glasses in the transports of his enthusiasm.  “Come along, Doc,” said the singer as soon as he could make himself heard; “give us a yarn.”  With the assistance of his neighbours the Doctor placed one foot on his chair and the other on the table.  “Say, you fellows,” he said thickly, “jolly litl’ yarn—­Goblylocks an’ Three Bears.”

Overcome, apparently, by tender recollections he was silent, and fixed the walnuts with a dreamy stare.

“Go on, Doc!” “Goldilocks, Goldilocks.”  “The Doc,” said the Paymaster, “was always a devil for the girls.”

“Pay,” remonstrated the First Lieutenant sorrowfully, “that’s the third half-penny for swearing this year.  You mean that the Doctor has always evinced a marked partiality for the society of the gentler sex.”

Punctuated at the more exciting points with breathless exclamations of horror and amazement from his audience, the Doctor’s rendering of the story proved an overwhelming success.  As he painted in vivid periods the scene where Goldilocks was discovered by all three bears asleep in the little bear’s bed, the First Lieutenant broke down completely and had to be patted and soothed into a more tranquil frame of mind before the story could proceed.  Then there was a spell of musical chairs, the First Engineer obliging at the piano, and afterwards giving a tuneful West-Country