us along nicely, if, as I heard one of the sailors say just now, it
does not go round to the south."

"Bugler, sound companies one, two, and three to breakfast."

The order interrupted the conversation, and, for the next hour,
the boys had little time for talk. Half the regiment was on board
the "Nancy," and, after breakfast, the men were divided into three
watches, of which one was always to be on deck, for the ship was very
crowded, and there was scarcely room for all the men to be below
together. The boys were in the same watch, for the day previous to
starting Tom had been appointed bugler to the 2d Company, Peter to the
3d. The 1st Company, or Grenadiers, were in the watch with the band,
the 2d and 3d Companies were together, and the 4th and 5th.

Tom was very ill for the first two days of the voyage, while Peter did
not feel the slightest effects from the motion. Upon the third day the
wind dropped suddenly, and the vessels rolled heavily in the swell,
with their sails flapping against the masts. Tom came up that morning
upon deck feeling quite well again, and the boys were immensely amused
at seeing the attempts of the soldiers to move about, the sudden
rushes, and the heavy falls. A parade had been ordered to take place;
but as no one could have stood steady without holding on, it was
abandoned as impossible. The men sat about under the bulwarks, and a
few amused themselves and the rest by trying to play various games,
such as laying a penny on the deck, and seeing which would pitch
another to lay nearest to it, from a distance of five yards. The
difficulty of balancing oneself in a heavily rolling vessel, and of
pitching a penny with any degree of accuracy, is great, and the manner
in which the coins, instead of coming down flat and remaining there,