I.

"'Erbert 'Enery Bates!"

"Wot cheer!"

It was the morning of Speech-day on board the Industrial Training
Ship _Egeria_--July the 31st, to be precise. At 3 p.m. Sir Felix
Felix-Williams, Baronet, would arrive to distribute the prizes.
He would be attended by a crowd of ladies and gentlemen; and the
speeches, delivered beneath an awning on the upper deck, would be
fully reported next day in the local newspapers. The weather was
propitious.

Just now (11 a.m.) some half a dozen of the elder boys, attired in
dirty white dungaree and barefooted, were engaged in swabbing out
what, in her sea-going days, had been the _Egeria's_ ward-room,
making ready to set out tables for an afternoon tea to follow the
ceremony. They were nominally under supervision of the ship's
Schoolmaster, who, however, had gone off to unpack a hamper of
flowers--the gift of an enthusiastic subscriber.

"Step this way, 'Erbert 'Enery Bates."

"You go to hell, Link Andrew!" But the boy stopped his work and faced
about, nevertheless.

"See this flag?" Link Andrew dived his long arms into a pile of