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"He's just the regulation, sir," he said, after inspecting the measure. "Thirty-one inches, sir, exactly." The doctor looked at Reeks's papers again. "Ah, yes, all right, his age is under sixteen, I see," said he. "Just test his height, Trimmens." The sick-bay steward took Reeks to the bulkhead opposite, where was a standard for measurement, the same as they keep in barrack-rooms.
For, thank God, I proved to be not only `sound in mind and limb, but taller and broader-chested than most lads of my age. While as for my sight "By Jove, Trimmens," observed the doctor, "I think he could pretty nearly see through that bulkhead and the Bill of Portland beyond! He has eyes like gimlets!" "Yes, sir!"
Hamlet'll get his share in spite of all, an' he'll be as tight as a brick by ten o'clock. You know my joey 'possum? Well, I'll fix him up into the awfullest kind of a blue devil, with feathers an' things. We'll push him into Jo's room, and when Jo comes home an' strikes a light he'll spot him, an' think he's got delirious trimmens again. That'll give him a shakin'.
"He's five feet two, sir," he called out "to a h'inch, sir." "All right, that'll do," said the doctor. "I don't think Mr Reeks will grow much more, though; he's too thickset. Get me my stethoscope, Trimmens, and I'll sound his lungs and heart."
In this impromptu cradle `Ugly' was let down very carefully and taken to the sick-bay, where, as I was afterwards told, Mr Trimmens the sick- berth steward being my informant, it required the application of the galvanic battery to bring him to, the fright he had undergone, and consequent shock to his system, having been so great!
"Now, strip off your clothes to the waist, Reeks, and you, Trimmens, just take his chest measurement, please. You need not take off your trousers, boy!" He added this caution in the nick of time, for `Ugly' appeared about to peel off everything, to his naked pelt! The sick-berth steward then proceeded to put a tape-measure round his body, just under the armpits, compassing his chest.
"An' sure, yer anner, if Oi arn't broad enough in the chist, I make up for it by being taller for me age Bedad, Oi'm that, sor!" The doctor seemed tickled by this unanswerable piece of logic. "We'll see about that, Paddy," he said. "Trimmens, measure his height!" "Five feet five, sir," ejaculated the steward, after adjusting the sliding roll of the standard and reading the index.
Our injuries not being sufficiently serious to put either of us in the sick-list, `Ugly' and I were sent back, after being lotioned and `dressed' by Trimmens, to rejoin our division, then at their `instruction drill' on the lower deck, and engaged making what are known to those learned in the arts of the sea as `bends and hitches.
Trimmens, the sick-berth steward, on the contrary, never moved a muscle of his mahogany face when `Ugly' said that he had knocked his head against the hatchway, and I told a `banger' by volunteering the statement that I had broken a plate on the mess-table, and one of the pieces had run into my arm.
Only at the beginning of the month, too!" "Yes, sir," agreed the steward. "Shall I make a start with 'em, sir?" "Oh yes, carry on, Trimmens," said the doctor, looking at his watch, and then sitting bolt upright in his chair with more alertness than he had yet displayed. "But, by Jove, you must look sharp! It's close on lunch time, and we haven't much time to spare."
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