six o'clock
If you _ do n't _ mind , I 'll take the red-headed one , to put me in mind o ' my gal . '' So on the whole we settled ourselves down very comfortably aboard the _ Melpomene _ : but the ship was not easy that day as a society , nor could be , with her commanding officer pacing to and fro like a bear in a cage . You will have seen the black bear at the Zoo , and noticed the swing of his head as he turns before ever reaching the end of his cage ? Well just so -- or very like it -- the _ Melpomene 's _ first lieutenant kept swinging and chafing on the quarter-deck all that afternoon -- or , to be precise , until six o'clock , when Captain Suckling came aboard in a shore-boat , and in his shore-going clothes . He was a pleasant-faced man ; clean-shaven , rosy-complexioned , grey-haired , with something of the air and carriage of a country squire ; a pleasant-tempered man too , although he appeared to be in a pet of some sort , and fairly fired up when the first lieutenant -LRB- a little sarcastically , I thought -RRB- ventured to hope that he had been enjoying himself . `` Nothing of the sort , sir ! It 's the first -- '' Captain Suckling checked himself .