that the captain desired that none should come on board until the
evening, and having sent it off by their boatmen, telling them to
return in time to take them back to dinner, he and Cyril mounted to
the poop and surveyed the scene round them. The ship was surrounded
with lighters and boats from the dockyards, and from these casks and
barrels, boxes and cases, were being swung on board by blocks from
the yards, or rolled in at the port-holes. A large number of men were
engaged at the work, and as fast as the stores came on board they
were seized by the sailors and carried down into the hold, the
provisions piled in tiers of barrels, the powder-kegs packed in the
magazine.

"'Tis like an ant-hill," Cyril said. "'Tis just as I have seen when a
nest has been disturbed. Every ant seizes a white egg as big as
itself, and rushes off with it to the passage below."

"They work bravely," his companion said. "Every man seems to know
that it is important that the ship should be filled up by to-night.
See! the other four vessels lying above us are all alike at work, and
may, perhaps, start with us in the morning. The other ships are busy,
too, but not as we are. I suppose they will take them in hand when
they have got rid of us."

"I am not surprised that the captain does not want idlers here, for,
except ourselves, every man seems to have his appointed work."

"I feel half inclined to take off my doublet and to go and help to
roll those big casks up the planks."

"I fancy, Sydney, we should be much more in the way there than here.