CHAPTER VIII.
My messmates show me the folly of running in debt--Duty carried on politely--I become acquainted with some gentlemen of the home department--The episode of Sholto M'Foy.
Now that I have been on board about a month, I find that my life is not disagreeable.

I don't smell the pitch and tar, and I can get into my hammock without tumbling out on the other side.

My messmates are good-tempered, although they laugh at me very much; but I must say that they are not very nice in their ideas of honour They appear to consider that to take you in is a capital joke; and that because they laugh at the time that they are cheating you, it then becomes no cheating at all.
Now I cannot think otherwise than that cheating is cheating, and that a person is not a bit more honest, because he laughs at you in the bargain.

A few days after I came on board, I purchased some tarts of the bumboat woman, as she is called; I wished to pay for them, but she had no change, and very civilly told me she would trust me.

She produced a narrow book, and said that she would open an account with me, and I could pay her when I thought proper.