As for actual pleasure in the course of my duties, that was something I had learned not to expect on board the "Dublin." The sole idea of the ship as the captain endeavored to direct it, was work, work, and every job, whether of putting on a seizing or sweeping the deck, was to be done with the interest and thoroughness which would attend a matter of life or death. Nothing that was ship's duty could be called trivial, and if a shaving took refuge under a spare spar, escaping the boy's broom, it demanded as great an outcry as one would suppose belonged to one, who had scuttled the ship. In fact it generally received it, for if the shaving escaped the officer's eye, it was pretty sure to meet the captain's glance, for he was very particular after clearing-up time to search for something, which would give him opportunity to find fault with his officers, and show them they had not done their duty. The second mate and I had a room in the starboard side of the after house, opening out upon the deck. The weather being warm, I usually left the door open when I turned in, and one morning at about five o'clock I was awakened by a tremendous string of oaths, uttered by the captain in a very loud tone just in front of my room. "That shows the ambition of my officers," said he. "Nothing can be done unless I see to it myself. I believe if I should keep in my room one day the ship would go clear to destruction," (only he used a more explicit name,) and he went on with mingled curses and denunciations about the ambition of his officers, in a way that made me tremble. The occasion of this display, I learned, was the falling of a bundle of salt-fish from underneath one of the boats, and it happened that I had sent a man the evening before to see that it was well secured, as there was an appearance of more wind coming during the night. Being before the wind, the ship rolled a good deal, and the salt-fish fetched away in spite of the sailor's effort at securing it. There was no damage done to the fish, but it showed to the captain's mind that his officers had no ambition, and he made use of it to let off the cross feelings which mates know as a general thing attend a captain's getting up in the morning, and seem to be a sort of morning bitters--an appetizer for his cup of coffee. All these things gave me a vivid impression of the meaning of the phrase "eternal vigilance;" for no matter how hard I tried or closely watched, every little while there would be discovered some job which a sailor had slighted, or a gasket would get adrift on a yard while I was busied with work which required my whole attention, and the captain, who had nothing else to do but look for such things, would happen to spy it, and then would begin his taunting, aggravating remarks: "Nobody sees anything, but me. I don't know what they'd do without the old man," and so on, in a way that sometimes goaded me almost beyond endurance. When the captain saw this effect, in the