The next day, we all commenced in earnest our studies in navigation and seamanship, the naval instructor with his assistants working us up in our mathematics and imparting to us the elements of plane and spherical trigonometry; while the boatswain and his mates gave us practical lessons in the setting up of rigging and making of knots, so that there should be no chance of our mistaking a "sheepshank" for a "cat's paw," or a "Flemish eye" for a "grommet!" Here I at once gained the good opinion of the boatswain by making a "Matthew Walker" knot which, I may mention for the benefit of the uninitiated, is used generally on ship board for the standing part of the lanyards of lower rigging. This I managed to achieve successfully at my first attempt, thanks to Dad's previous instruction; and I not only "got to win'ard" of the old seaman by the knowledge I thus displayed, but added to my laurels by showing that I knew something also of the somewhat intricate arts of "worming" and "parcelling" and "serving" ropes when occasion arose for dealing with them in such fashion, repeating aloud, to the great satisfaction of my teacher, the distich which guides the tyro and tells him how to do his work properly:-- "_Worm_ and _parcel_ with the lay, And _serve_ the rope the other way!" With my mathematical studies, too, I made equal progress, in spite of my original dislike to friend Euclid and his vexatious propositions. I also learnt how to find my latitude, by "bringing down the sun" with the sextant; and was taught the bearings and deviation of the compass, as well as the mastery of the log-line and other similar little niceties of navigation. These preliminaries achieved, I was reported by the naval instructor to the captain of the training-ship as "efficient" long before my probationary period of three months had expired. The captain of the training-ship, in due course, reported me to the Admiralty; and one fine morning I received official notice from the Secretary informing me that I was to go to sea, being appointed to the _Candahar_, line-of-battle ship, just commissioned for service on the China station; where, it was reported, matters were getting a little ticklish at the time, our government being at loggerheads with that of the emperor of the sun, moon and stars, and war imminent between the two countries. It was certainly a splendid opening for me! "By jingo! you're a lucky johnny," said little Tom Mills when I told him the news, my chum heaving a sigh of disappointment at this early severance of our friendship. He was, I could see, also a little jealous of my going to sea before him. "I'll write to my father and see if he cannot get me appointed to the same ship!"