However, after, like `vaulting ambition,' overleaping himself when trying to jump into his unaccustomed bed-place, falling, equally unceremoniously, `on t'other side,' Mick succeeded in ensconcing himself very comfortably in his hammock. Now came my turn, my friend Larrikins being even more obsequious in his aid to me than to Mick. The result amply justified his solicitude, for, although I managed to jump in all right, and even to go to sleep presently soundly enough, wearied out with all the excitement of the day, I was in the midst of a terrible dream, in which I thought I was at sea in the _Martin_ brig, in a fearful tempest, with the waters overwhelming us, and the vessel on the point of foundering, when I was awakened by a crash that seemed to resound through the ship, and then I'm sure I saw more stars than were ever seen by mortal in the bright blue firmament of heaven! I had been `cut down,' as the nautical phrase goes. CHAPTER FIVE. BOXING THE COMPASS. Sudden as had been my downfall, I was sufficiently awake, after the first momentary giddiness caused by the sharp crack with which my head came against the deck had passed away, to have a shrewd idea as to who had brought about my sad calamity; the giggling and whispering, that went on around, in the semi-darkness, telling me, had I needed any such assurance, that my fall was due to no accident. "Hullo, my joker!" I sang out, recognising the voice of Larrikins as I fumbled about amongst the blankets and loose hammock cloth, feeling very much as if I were tightly tied up in a sack, part of the lanyard having taken a round turn round my neck. "I say, you first-class boy, there! You with the mug on you like a vegetable marrow! Wait till to-morrow morning and I'll serve you out for this--see if I don't!" "Lor', yer doesn't mean fur to say as how ye've gone a downer?" cried my tormentor, in a tone of great commiseration, lending a hand to extricate me from the folds of the blankets. "I never seed a chap go down so suddink. Lor'! Yer must hev made a slippery hitch when yer fastened up the end on yer lanyard to the hook. Lor', I am that orful sorry!" "Oh yes," said I, shaking myself free from the last of my encumbrances and standing up erect, "you can just tell that to the marines!" I was not, however, at all out of temper, having learnt long since from my father, even were I not fond of a bit of practical-joking myself, not to take umbrage at the skylarking of any of my comrades on board ship where no malice was really intended. As he told me, the more a fellow shows he's `riled,' the more his shipmates ever will tease him. "If you want to have a happy life at sea, Tom," said he, "you must always bear everything good-humouredly--everything; aye, should you tumble from aloft and risk losing the number of your mess into the bargain!"