And there stood the captain of the waist, with his hat in his hand, opposite to the captain of the ship. There was some difference between those two captains:--one verging upon old age, the other upon manhood. The old man with but two articles of dress upon his person, a canvass shirt and a canvass pair of trousers,--for in those latitudes shoes and stockings are dispensed with by the foremast men, excepting on Sundays and when mustering at divisions; the other gay, and almost gorgeous, in white jeans, broad-cloth, and gold. There they stood, the one the personification of meekness, the other of haughty anger. However firm might have been the captain's intentions to convict the man before him by an intricate cross-examination, his warmth of temper defeated them at once, for the old seaman looked more than usually innocent and sheepish. This almost stolid equanimity was sadly provoking. "You insolent scoundrel!--who milked my cow last night?"--"The Lord in heaven knows, your honour. Who could it be, sir, without it was the ghost who has laid that poor lad in his sick hammock?" "And I suppose that the ghost ordered you to hand the milk to the young gentlemen when he had done?"--"Me, sir! Heaven save me! I never se'ed a ghost in my life." "Hypocrite! the bottle you sold the midshipmen!"--"One, your honour, I brought from Antigua, and which I overlooked yesterday." "I shall not overlook it when I get you to the gangway. Go, Mr. Littlejohn, give orders to beat to quarters the moment the men have had their time." All that forenoon the captain kept officers and men exercising the great guns, running them in and out, pointing them here and there;--sail-trimmers aloft--boarders on the starboard bow--firemen down in the fore-hold: the men had not a moment's respite, nor the officers either. How potently in their hearts they d--d the cow, even from the tips of her horns unto the tuft at the end of her tail! Five secret resolves were made to poison her that hard-worked morning. Mr. Small Jack, who was stationed at the foremost main-deck guns near her, gave her a kick every time the order came from the quarter-deck to ram home wad and shot. Well, this sweltering work, under a tropical sun, proceeded till noon, the captain alternately swearing at the officers for want of energy, and exclaiming to himself indignantly, "D--them! how dare they milk my cow! There must be several concerned. Send the carpenter aft. Mr. Wedge, rig both the chain-pumps,--turn the water on in the well. Waisters! man the pumps. Where's that Grummet? Boatswain's mates, out with your colts and lay them over the shoulders of any man that shirks his duty; keep a sharp eye on the captain of the waist."