Middy and Ensign

The close of a hot day on board Her Majesty's ship "Startler," whose engines kept up a regular pulsation as the screw-propeller churned the water astern into golden and orange foam. The dappled sky and the rippled sea were a blaze of colour; crimson, scarlet, burnished copper, orange chrome, dead, and flashing gold, -all were there, on cloud edge and wave slope, mingled with purples, and greens, and blues, as the sun slowly descended to his rest