This speech caused no little excitement among the boys, who anticipated a great deal from the summer voyage.  It was no small thing to visit London, Paris, and St. Petersburg, and not many boys obtain such an opportunity.

“But, young gentlemen, I believe in discipline and progress, as most of you know.  I expect every student to do his whole duty; and I wish to tell you now, that misconduct, and failures at recitation, will bring heavy disappointments upon you.  If you do nothing for yourselves, you need expect nothing from me.  For example, when the ship is going up the Thames, if any one of you, or any number of you, should be guilty of flagrant misconduct, or gross neglect of your studies, you will see no more of the city of London than you can see from the cross-trees, for you shall not put a foot on shore.”

“Rather steep,” whispered one of the new comers.

“That’s so, but he means it,” replied an old student.

“We shall be at sea, out of sight of land, for twenty or thirty days,” continued Mr. Lowington.  “We shall encounter storms and bad weather, such as none of you have ever seen; for in going from port to port, last season, we were enabled to avoid all severe weather.  We shall go to sea now with no harbor before us till we reach the other side of the Atlantic, and we must take whatever comes.  But the ship is as strong as a ship can be built, and with good management she would stand any gale that ever blew.  Good management includes good discipline, and every officer and seaman must be faithful in the discharge of his duty, for the safety of the ship and all on board of her will depend upon the fidelity of each individual.

“Young gentlemen, there are eleven new scholars:  they must take the vacant berths after the ship’s company is organized on the old plan.  The offices will be given out and the berths drawn by the merit roll for January, February, and a portion of March—­only about nine weeks of term time.”

Shuffles, who stood near the principal, looked very much disconcerted when this announcement was made, and whispered to Paul Kendall that it was not fair to distribute the offices by last year’s record.  While the Young America was lying at anchor in Chesapeake Bay, in December, Shuffles, then second lieutenant, had received a letter from his mother, in which she had informed him that his family would visit Europe in the following spring, and that he would leave the ship, and form one of the party.  This information had caused him to relax his efforts as a student, and he had fallen very low in rank.  This was the reason why the proposed distribution of offices was not fair.

When Shuffles went home on his furlough of twenty days, he had behaved so badly that his father refused to have him form one of the party in the trip abroad, and compelled him to return to the ship for another year of wholesome discipline under Mr. Lowington.  Angry and indignant, Shuffles did return and the announcement that the offices were to be distributed by the merit roll did not add to his equanimity.