"Well, Prose, how do you like the new skipper?" inquired Seymour, soon after his arrival on board. "Why--I do declare, I can hardly tell. He's a very good-tempered man, but he don't exactly treat us midshipmen as if we were officers or gentlemen; and as for his wife, she is really too bad. I am sent every day on shore to the cottage, because I belong to the captain's gig. They never ask me to sit down, but set me to work somehow or another. The other day he had a boat's crew on shore digging up a piece of ground for planting potatoes, and he first showed me how to cut the _eyes_, and then gave me a knife, and ordered me to _finish the whole bag_ which lay in the field, and to see that the men worked properly at the same time. I never cut potatoes into little bits before, except at table after they were boiled." "Well, that was too bad; but however, you'll know how to plant potatoes in future--there's nothing like knowledge." "And then he sends the nurse and children for an airing, as he calls it, on the water, and I am obliged to take them. I don't like pulling maid-servants about." "That's quite a matter of taste, Prose; some midshipmen do." "What do you think Mrs Capperbar asked me to do the other day?" "I'm sure I can't guess." "Why, to shell peas." "Well, did you oblige her?" "Why, yes, I did; but I did not like it,--and the other day the captain sent me out to walk with the nurse and children, that I might carry Master Henry if he was tired." "They have observed the versatility of your genius." "She made me hunt the hedges for a whole morning after eggs because she was convinced that one of the hens laid astray." "Did you find any?" "No; and when I came back to tell her so, she got into a rage, and threatened to make the captain flog me." "The devil she did!" "A devil she is," continued Prose. "She runs about the house--`Captain Capperbar' this,--`Captain Capperbar' that--`I will'--`I will not'--`I insist'--`I am determined.' But," continued Prose, "as you belonged to the captain's gig before, you will of course take her again, and I shall be very glad to give the charge up to you." "Not for the world, my dear Prose: what may insure your promotion would be my ruin. I never nursed a child or shelled a pea in my life; the first I should certainly let fall, and the second I probably should eat for my trouble. So pray continue at your post of honour, and I will go for the fresh beef every morning as you were accustomed to do when we we were last in port."