“Don’t you think you shall get into the cabin next term?”

“I know I shall not.  I haven’t tried for anything.”

“On the first of next month, you know, new officers will be appointed, and I suppose the crew will be messed over again.”

“I don’t care, I’m getting tired of this thing, I had a better time at the Academy before we came on board.”

“There isn’t much chance for any sport.  Hardly a fellow has been allowed to go on shore since we joined the ship.”

“Well get up a mutiny, if things don’t improve.”

“I was thinking of that very thing myself,” said Shuffles, in a low tone.

“A mutiny!” exclaimed Wilton, who had used the word in jest.

“Just for fum, you know,” laughed Shuffles.

“You don’t mean any such thing?”

“Not yet, of course.”

“Do you at any time?”

“We want something more exciting than this kind of a life.  Here we are, kept down and treated like common sailors.  We have to touch our caps and make our manners to Dick Carnes and the rest of the flunkies in the after cabin.  My father pays as much for me as Dick Carnes’ father does for him, and I don’t think it is fair that he should live in the cabin and I in the steerage.”

“If you get marks enough, you can have a berth in the cabin,” replied Wilton.

“Marks!  Confound the marks!  I’m not a baby.  Do you think a fellow seventeen years old is going to be put up or put down by marks?” said Shuffles.

“I thought you had been working for a place in the cabin.”

“So I have, but I don’t expect to get it.  I never studied so hard in my life, and I believe I haven’t had a bad mark since I came on board, Lowington thinks I have reformed,” laughed Shuffles.  “And so I have.”

“What do you want to get up a mutiny for, then?”

“I shall not, if I get a decent position; if I don’t, I’m going in for some fun.”

“But do you really think of getting up a mutiny?” asked Wilton, curiously.

“I was thinking the other day what a fine thing it would be if our fellows had the ship all to themselves.”

“What could we do with her?”

“Go on a cruise in her.”

“We couldn’t handle her; there is hardly a fellow on board that knows anything about navigation.”

“Of course, I don’t mean to do anything yet a while; not this year, perhaps.  One of these days, if we stay on board, we shall know all about a ship.  Fifteen or twenty of the fellows are studying navigation.  We are going to Europe some time or other.  When we do, we can take the ship, and go it on our own hook.”

“I don’t believe you mean anything of the kind, Bob Shuffles.”

“I’ve been thinking about it, anyhow.  We can lock Lowington and the rest of the old folks into their cabin while they are at dinner; and there are enough of us to handle Peaks and Bitts.”