“Now, boys, pitch in, help yourselves, for if you don’t, you won’t be helped at all.  Every one that comes here has to learn to take care of himself.”

“You will not find us at all bashful,” answered Frank, and he began helping himself most bountifully to every thing on the table.

It did not take them long to become acquainted, and the boys found that their new shipmates were much better educated than the majority of the sailors they had met.  They were a good-natured, jovial set of fellows, and the meal-hour passed away quickly and pleasantly.

Immediately after supper the corporal ordered all hands below to pump out the ship.  In a quarter of an hour this was accomplished, and as they were ascending to the boiler-deck.  Woods remarked: 

“I wish I was back in Wisconsin again for a little while.”

“Are you tired of the navy?” inquired Frank.

“Oh, no!” answered Woods; “but I should like to see my friends again, and try my hand at quail-shooting.”

“Are you fond of hunting?”

“Yes, indeed; I spend all my spare time in the woods, when I am at home.”

This was the very man, of all others, that Frank would have chosen for a companion, and he informed Woods that he also was very fond of rural sports.  They seated themselves on the boiler door railing, and each related some of his hunting and fishing adventures, and, finally, Woods proposed that they should go over the river into Kentucky, on the following morning, on a squirrel hunt.  Frank, of course, readily agreed to this.  He immediately started in search of his cousin and Simpson, and informed them of the proposed excursion.  When he returned to the place where he had left Woods, he found him with a musket on his shoulder, and a cartridge-box buckled about his waist, pacing up and down the deck.

“I’m on watch, you see,” he said, as Frank came up, “You will go on at midnight; so you had better go and turn in.  If we go hunting to-morrow, we must start by four o’clock at least, for we have a good way to walk before we reach the hunting-ground.  Good night.”  And Woods, settling his musket more firmly on his shoulder, continued his beat, while Frank sought his hammock.

About midnight he was awakened by a hand laid on his shoulder, when, starting up, he found one of the corporals standing beside his hammock holding a lantern in his hand.

“Is your name Nelson?” he inquired.

Frank answered in the affirmative, and the corporal continued: 

“Roll out, then, for it is time for you to go on watch.  But be careful when you come out, or you’ll be shot.”

“Shot!” exclaimed Frank.  “Who’ll shoot me?  Are there any rebels around here?”

“Yes, plenty of them.  There are some out on the bank now.  I was walking with Woods, when I happened to look up, and saw two men, with their muskets pointed straight at us; but we got out ofthe way before they had time to shoot.  Hurry up, now, but don’t expose yourself,” and the corporal hurried aft, hiding his lantern under his coat of the went.