To my terrified imagination a flogging seemed to be the least punishment I could expect. Not only had I knocked him down, but here was I appearing before him in the clothes he had ordered changed. The other officers, crimson and purple with wrath, helped the Captain to his feet. It appeared that while I had been waiting for the letter, he had gone forth in his gig to inspect the very ship I was bound for. "Ha!" he exclaimed when he had recovered his breath, "the same lad! The same uniform!" Then suddenly he looked at his frowning companions and burst into laughter. "Why," he exclaimed, "just when we were talking about our enemy's guns, he came over the side like a cannon ball! I thought the gunners of Tripoli were bombarding us!" When the laughter ended I had a chance to deliver the letter and to explain that the lieutenant had pressed me into service before I had an opportunity to change my garb. He nodded. "The irregularity of your clothes we will overlook just now," he said, "but your irregular way of coming aboard, and the headlong way in which you approach your superiors, and intrude upon their conferences, is a matter that warrants your being turned over to the master-at-arms. However, you scamp, we'll forgive all of your offences for the laugh you have given us! I hope if I ever call on you to board an enemy's ship you'll go over her side with the same speed!" The crew was divided into three sets. The men in the first set were called topmen; their duty was to climb the masts and to take in or furl, reef or let out the sails. This group of topmen were in turn subdivided, according to the masts of the ship. Thus we had fore-topmen, main-topmen and mizzen-topmen. The second set of men attended to the sails from the deck. It was their task to handle the lowest sails, and to set and take in the jibs, lower studding sails and spanker; they also coiled the ropes of the running gear. These men too were grouped according to masts. The third set of men were called scavengers. These did the dirty work of the ship, gathering the refuse from all quarters of the vessel and casting it overboard. I, on account of my youth, was assigned to none of these sets, but to the boys' division. There were a dozen of us lads on board, and a merry set of scamps we were. We were assigned to serve the officers, and because of this we managed to overhear and pass to each other a good deal of information concerning the operations of the ship that was not intended for us to know. Some of us became favorites with the officers we served, and when we got into mischief and were threatened with punishment, our officers often shielded us.