252 ALONGSHORE iv 



was awakened. It was the hour of official sunrise 

 — a comic notion. But it seemed out there, 

 beneath the great ironclad, that the sun by some 

 vast power had been stayed in his course till then. 

 That power of the Navy, not indeed over the 

 heavens but over the minds of mankind, acting 

 obscurely alongshore, draws men into the service 

 at least as surely as the uniform that Is usually 

 blamed, because youngsters take to it as, and 

 for much the same reasons as, birds put on fine 

 feathers at the beginning of the mating season. 

 Here we have the Navy eye, so to speak. A 

 soldier going by in full pipeclayed regimentals, 

 very stiff, very tight, very smart, excites only sur- 

 prise and laughter: 'Shouldn't I like to see he hae 

 to bend down two-double an' pick a peck o' win- 

 kles!' But half a dozen bluejackets striding loose- 

 knit along the sea-wall. . . . 'Smartish chaps!' 

 some one exclaims, and inquires how they are 

 doing in the Service. They are splendid full- 

 blooded animals, in the sense that to be fine 

 animals Is what we all desire. And more; for the 

 bluejacket Is no longer a sea-labourer. He Is a 

 specialist at something or other, besides being an 

 expert In a special way of life. While talking to 

 petty officers one gathers hints of an admirably 



