"It is a long lane that has no turning," though, as the old adage goes; and so, after three weeks more of enrolling volunteers at Corporal Macan's favourite "rendywoo," and the hoisting in of many guns and boats and stores and provisions of all sorts, until the _Candahar_, I thought, would never contain them all, we finally bent our sails, crossed royal yards and were declared "ready for sea." Captain Farmer came on board with "all his bag and baggage" on our ship's company "turning over" from the old hulk _Blake_, to which we all bade a long and welcome adieu, all hands being then mustered by divisions to beat of drum along the upper and lower decks. We were eight hundred strong, all told; officers and men; bluejackets of all ratings, and marines; boys and "idlers," as some of the hardest-worked fellows aboard are somewhat inappropriately designated in the watch bill, according to nautical etiquette; as motley a collection at the first start, and yet as fine a set of fellows as you could pick out in a year's cruise! These preliminaries being all arranged, we cast off from the hulk late one November afternoon; and, the dockyard tug _Puffing Billy_ taking us in tow, proceeded to Spithead, where we anchored in eleven fathoms, letting out some six shackles of cable, so that we could swing comfortably with the tide as it flowed in and out of the roadstead. CHAPTER EIGHT. A LITTLE SURPRISE. "I suppose," said I, after we had cast anchor, to Larkyns, who had kindly noticed me the first day I came aboard and had been very friendly with me since, patronising me in the way the elder boys of the sixth form sometimes do the younger fellows at school, "we'll sail to-morrow, eh?" "Sail to-morrow? Your grandmother!" he answered with his usual grin. I believe that chap would have grinned if you had told him his father was dead, for he looked on everything from a humorous point of view and could not help laughing even when the captain spoke to him, which often got him in for an extra mast-heading. "Why, we haven't got in our lower deck guns yet, booby, let alone our powder and ammunition; besides all sorts of stores we could not ship in harbour!" "Oh!" I exclaimed, somewhat crestfallen at his "snub", "I didn't think of that." "I suppose not," replied he, mimicking me, "but you have a good deal to learn yet, let me tell you. Hullo, though, Master Squaretoes, what do you mean by coming on the quarter-deck with nails in your boots? You'll have the first lieutenant after you, my joker, if he notices it, and there'll be the dickens to pay, I can tell you!" "What do you mean?" I retorted indignantly. "I have not got any nails in my boots at all."