"But, recollect it's all owing to discipline and obedience to orders!" Beyond the troops, the blue sea could be seen reflecting the hue of the cloudless sky overhead, its surface dotted here and there with the white sail of some yacht or other, passing between Cowes and Spithead, or beating out into the Channel in the distance; while, in the more immediate foreground, anchored abreast of one of the harbour forts, was a modern ironclad man-of-war.
"What is that ?" inquired Bob, pointing in the direction where the vessel lay, looking like some marine monster asleep on the water.
"Humph! you may well ask the question," growled the Captain, jobbing his stick down with an extra thump.

"That is what they call a `ship' now-a- days! She's an `armour-clad' of the latest type, with all the improvements, though very different to the craft I and your Uncle Ted were accustomed to see in the good old times when ships were ships!" "Why, Captain Dresser," said Bob sympathetically, "she's just like the roof of a house!" "You're not far out, my boy.

They all resemble floating barns more than anything else," grumbled the old sailor, bewailing the gallant frigates and three-deckers of the past.

"But, come on now, let us get to the dockyard, and I will show you one or two vessels of the right sort that we still have got left, thank God, to remind us of what England's navy once was!" With these words, he dragged the boys, much against their will, away from the busy scene on the common and past the last remaining bastion of the old fortifications that once encircled Portsmouth; and, finally getting into the town he dived through all sorts of queer little streets and alleys, and then along the new road running by the side of the Gunwharf until they reached the Hard.
Here, stopping outside an outfitter's shop not far from the dockyard, the Captain seized hold of Dick and pulled him forwards towards the door.
"Do you know what I'm going to do with you, eh, you young rascal ?" he asked him, with a chuckle which took all the sternness out of his threatening tones.

"Can you guess ?" "No, sir," replied the lad; but, evidently did not anticipate anything very dreadful, for he grinned all over his face.