thoroughly favorable one, you are not likely to be again employed.
I was told that there was nothing special against you, but that in
no case since you passed have you been warmly spoken of. It has been
said that you know your duty well; but they had privately learned
that you were fond of liquor; and although no charge of absolute
drunkenness had been brought against you, it was considered that
you would not make a desirable officer in a higher rank. Now your
future depends upon yourself; if you have the resolution to give
up the habit, you may yet retrieve yourself. If I find that you do
so, I shall certainly take the opportunity of giving you a chance
to distinguish yourself, and shall strongly urge your claim to
promotion. If I am not able to do this, you must make up your mind
to be permanently put upon the shelf."

The admonition had not been in vain, and since joining the Serpent
Morrison had made a successful effort to break himself of the
habit. He had very seldom gone ashore, and when he did so, never
went alone, and always returned at an early hour, and without
having taken more than he would have done in the ordinary way on
board. He had not, however, given up his habit of grumbling, and
his messmates were so accustomed to his taking a somber view of
everything that his prognostication as to the nature of their work
up the river had but little effect upon them.

"What do you think, Sandy?" Harry Parkhurst asked the Scotch
assistant surgeon.

"I know nothing about it, except what I have read. They say that
the country is healthy; but it stands to reason that this cannot
be so while you have got rivers with swamps and jungles and such