“If he had anything to say to me, he might have been a little more gentle about it.”

Pelham neglected to say that he was not particularly gentle himself.

“Put that light out, Pelham, for my sake, if not for your own,” said Goodwin, when he found that his companion was too much out of sorts to be reasonable.

“Neither for yours nor my own will I put it out,” replied Pelham, as he took a cigar from its hiding-place, under the lower berth.

“What are you going to do, Pelham?” demanded Goodwin, filled with astonishment, as he observed the conduct of his fellow-officer.

“I’m going to have a smoke.”

“But you know that smoking is positively prohibited either on ship or shore.”

“I haven’t had a smoke since vacation,” replied Pelham, as he lighted the cigar.

“See here, Pelham; I won’t stand this!” exclaimed the third lieutenant, rising up in his bed, in which act he was nearly pitched out of his berth by a heavy roll of the ship.  “The companion-way is closed.”

“That’s the very reason why I’m going to smoke,” replied the malcontent, coolly.

“But I shall be stifled here.”

“Can’t help it.”

“I can,” retorted Goodwin, as he leaped out on the floor.

“What are you going to do?”

“I am going to inform Mr. Lowington what you are doing.”

“Are you such a fellow as that?” asked Pelham, indignantly.

“I am, if you are such a fellow as to attempt to stifle me with cigar smoke in my own room.  It would make me as sick as a horse in five minutes.”

“Seasick, you mean,” sneered Pelham.  “I’m going to have my smoke, if there is a row about it.”

Goodwin put on his pea-jacket, and left the room.

CHAPTER XV.

AFTER THE GALE.

One of the most singular traits observable in the character of some boys is the willingness, and even the desire, under certain circumstances, to get into trouble.  A young gentleman, feeling that he has been slighted, or his merit overlooked, permits himself to fall into a mental condition in which he feels no responsibility for his conduct; in which he recklessly breaks through all regulations, places himself in an attitude of opposition to constituted authority, and seems to court the heaviest penalty which can be inflicted upon him for disobedience, impudence, and rebellion.

The fourth lieutenant of the Young America had worked himself up to this disagreeable pitch.  He was not only disposed to assume an attitude of opposition to the principal, who had made the obnoxious regulation which was the immediate cause of his rebellious condition, but to all who supported his authority, or willingly submitted to it.

Smoking was a high crime on board the Young America—­not in the relation of the practice to the ship, but to the student.  It was condemned, not simply because it would be offensive in the cabins and steerage, and on deck, but because it was a bad habit for a boy to acquire.  The adult forward officers, the cooks and the stewards, were allowed to smoke on the forecastle at certain prescribed hours; but it was a punishable offence for a student to smoke at any time or in any place, whether on board or on shore.