capable of hard work at a pinch, and during the three weeks that
they spent at Portsmouth they certainly worked with a will. They had
nothing to do in the way of duty, except to practice the bugle, and
this they did with a zeal and perseverance that quite won the heart
of Corporal Skinner, and enabled him to look upon Captain Manley's
two guineas as good as earned. But even with the best will and the
strongest lungs possible, boys can only blow a bugle a certain number
of hours a day. For an hour before breakfast, for two hours before
dinner, and for an hour and a half in the evening they practiced, the
evening work being extra, alone with their instructor. There remained
the whole afternoon to themselves. Their employment of those hours had
been undertaken at Peter's suggestion.

"Look here, Tom," he said, at the end of the first day's work, "from
what the corporal says, we shall have from one till about five to
ourselves. Now, we are going to Spain, and it seems to me that it
would be of great use to us, and might do us a great deal of good, to
know something of Spanish. We have got four pounds each left, and I
don't think that we could lay it out better than in getting a Spanish
master and some books, and in setting to in earnest at it. If we work
with all our might for four hours a day with a master, we shall have
made some progress, and shall pick up the pronunciation a little. I
dare say we shall be another ten days or a fortnight on the voyage,
and shall have lots of time on our hands. It will make it so much
easier to pick it up when we get there if we know a little to start
with."

"I think it is a capital idea, Peter; I should think we are pretty
sure to find a master here."