The man who really _thinks_ much, seldom _drinks_ much; but there are hours--nay, weeks and months of idleness in a ship, in which the temptation to resort to unnatural excitement in quest of pleasure, is too strong for minds, that are not well fortified, to resist.

This is particularly the case with commanders, who find themselves isolated by their rank, and oppressed with responsibility, in the privacy of their own cabins, and get to make a companion of the bottle, by way of seeking relief from uncomfortable thoughts, and of creating a society of their own.

I deem the critical period of a sailor's life, to be the first few years of solitary command." "How true!--how true!" murmured Mrs.Dutton.

"Oh! that cutter--that cruel cutter!" The truth flashed upon the recollection of Bluewater, at this unguarded, and instantly regretted exclamation.

Many years before, when only a captain himself, he had been a member of a court-martial which cashiered a lieutenant of the name of Dutton, for grievous misconduct, while in command of a cutter; the fruits of the bottle.