"Gracious me! why, don't it seem strange, that here we've been for months and months, and never a lash laid on a man, when a few kind words kept all as orderly as possible; now nothing is heard but abuse, and the men gets the same sort of treatment as they did from Captain Puffeigh and Lieutenant Crushe? Well, it can't last long anyhow, that's one comfort." Under the generous Woodward the good qualities of the men were developed, and all endeavoured to show how anxious they were to please him. Yet in a few weeks all this was changed, and his excellent work undone through the ignorance of two men, who were utterly unfitted to hold command. It may be said that even had the power to flog been out of their hands, they would probably have devised other methods of torture; and a brute will always find some means of revenging himself. But one thing is certain: were the iniquitous custom completely abolished, and the cat-of-nine-tails numbered with the rack and other things of the past, _no one would dare revive its use_. It is a cruel, savage punishment, degrading to all concerned in its infliction, and there is no excuse for it that man or demon can invent. In the U. S. Navy this degrading practice exists no longer. Congress passed a law which for ever wiped the stain from the stars and stripes, it being therein enacted, "That in no case shall punishment by flogging be inflicted, nor shall any court-martial adjudge punishment by flogging." When the Stinger came to anchor in Simon's Bay the men were kept close prisoners on board, and, in spite of having a large amount of pay and prize-money due, many of them deserted or attempted to do so, and were brought back. After the ship had been in harbour a few days, Mr. Thompson went on shore, and paid a visit to some of his old friends. His first call was upon Miss Pferdscreptern, he not being aware she had entered the marriage state. Mrs. Schwartz was slumbering in a rocking-chair, while a small tow-headed, sleepy-eyed edition of herself sat blinking, and dozing upon a footstool by her side. The store presented about the same appearance as when he last saw it; but the lovely fraulein had so extended in latitude that the acting boatswain found he had quite lost his reckoning. Advancing with his cap respectfully doffed, Jerry politely inquired if the lady could inform him where Miss Wallbug Pferdscreptern lived. Mrs. Schwartz turned her head and chuckled slightly, whereupon the rolls of fat forming her neck undulated like the folds of a flag when first agitated by the breeze; and opening one eye, she slowly replied, "She tousant pe here at all now." "Why, when did she die?" "She tousant get tead." "Where is she then?" "For why does you ask?" "Well, you see, marm," replied the somewhat puzzled acting warrant-officer, "I knows a great friend of hers named Jerry Thompson, and he has axed me to look her up, and tell her all about him."