Puzzling over this difficulty, he advanced to the side of another hammock, from which heavy groans were issuing. "Are you very bad, corporal?" he asked in his usual tone of sympathy. "Bad is it?" said Flynn. "Och! it's worse nor bad I am! Couldn't ye ax the captin to heave-to for a--" The suggestive influence of heaving-to was too much for Flynn. He pulled up dead. After a few moments he groaned-- "Arrah! be off, Moses, av ye don't want my fist on yer nose." "Extraordinary!" murmured the kindly man, as he removed to another hammock, the occupant of which was differently constituted. "Moses," he said, as the visitant approached. "Yes, Gaspard," was the eager reply, "can I do anything for you?" "Yes; if you'd go on deck, refresh yourself with a walk, and leave us all alone, you'll con--fer--on--" Gaspard ceased to speak; he had already spoken too much; and Moses Pyne, still wondering, quietly took his advice. But if the Channel was bad, the Bay of Biscay was, according to Flynn, "far badder." Before reaching that celebrated bay, however, most of the men had recovered, and, with more or less lugubrious aspects and yellow-green complexions, were staggering about, attending to their various duties. No doubt their movements about the vessel were for some time characterised by that disagreement between action and will which is sometimes observed in feeble chickens during a high wind, but, on the whole, activity and cheerfulness soon began to re-animate the frames and spirits of Britain's warriors. And now Miles Milton began to find out, as well as to fix, in some degree, his natural character. Up to this period in his life, a mild existence in a quiet home, under a fairly good though irascible father and a loving Christian mother, had not afforded him much opportunity of discovering what he was made of. Recent events had taught him pretty sharply that there was much room for improvement. He also discovered that he possessed a very determined will in the carrying out of his intentions, especially when those intentions were based upon his desires. Whether he would be equally resolute in carrying out intentions that did _not_ harmonise with his desires remained to be seen. His mother, among her other teachings, had often tried to impress on his young mind the difference between obstinacy and firmness. "My boy," she was wont to say, while smoothing his curly head, "don't mistake obstinacy for firmness. A man who says `I _will_ do this or that in spite of all the world,' against advice, and simply because he _wants_ to do it, is obstinate. A man who says, `I _will_ do this or that in spite of all the world,' against advice, against his own desires, and simply because it is the right thing to do, is firm."