Having taken in a reef, we return on deck, and have a quarter of an hour's 'Stand easy.' By this time several fellows seem to be curiously drawn to the lee side of the ship! We, whose souls do _not_ 'sicken on the heaving _Wave_,' begin to feel the pangs of hunger, and set to work to devour the provisions we have brought with us, in addition to the ship's biscuit which is provided. [Illustration: POCKET MONEY.] Our 'Stand easy' being at an end, an order is given to start the engines full steam ahead; this is to get more way on for lifeboat practice. To-day I am one of the lifeboat's crew. The first lieutenant, throwing the lifebuoy into the sea, raises a cry of 'Man overboard.' Immediately the engines are stopped and the main-yard squared to stop the way of the ship. The lifeboat is manned and lowered, and we row towards the supposed drowning man, and with all promptitude rescue him from his watery grave. On our return to the _Wave_ there is a friendly rivalry between the fore and after part of the cadets to hoist up the lifeboat; the result being that the crew are in the comfortable position of sitting in a boat at an angle of about forty-five degrees, as the fore part are the stronger lot. However, we soon manage to get on board, and we go about and make for home; for so we come to regard the old hulk lying in the Dart. The order is given to get our sextants out of the charthouse; we carry them aft to take the meridian altitude of the sun. This is rather hard work while the ship is moving, when you are not accustomed to it, but doubtless will come easy in time. And now we are sent aloft to shake the reef out of the top-sails; this is the work of two or three minutes only, and we proceed towards the harbour mouth with increased speed. The wind is freshening, but the motion is not felt so much now that it is dead aft. While we are passing between the old castles of Kingswear and Dartmouth we go aloft to take in the sails. I am not on the yardarm this time, but next to it. While the 'Descent of Man' has lost him the gymnastic properties of his ancestors, a sailor's life brings out the power of 'Ascent in Man,' judging by the prehensile talent so quickly acquired by his hands and feet. Think of this and take comfort, O mothers! whose curly-haired Harrys and Willies are climbing aloft on the rigging, at the apparently imminent peril of their necks! We are past the Kingswear pontoon before the sails are furled, and we are now steaming up the harbour at our usual breathless speed, at which rate it is not long before we again make fast to the buoy and return on board, most of us having thoroughly enjoyed our cruise, and had our appetites whetted for the good dinner which is awaiting us.