n't help that; the thing is rare. I never
saw it for one; and I suppose you never saw a phenomenon of the kind,
Isaac?"

"Hain't I!" said Isaac, grimly. Then, with sudden and not very reasonable
heat, "D---- my eyes and limbs if I hain't seen the Peak o' Teneriffe in
the sky topsy-turvy, and as plain as I see that there cloud there"
(pointing upward).

"Come," said Moreland; "now we are getting to it. Tell us all about
that."

"Well, sir," said the seaman, "I don't care to larn them as laughs at
everything they hain't seen in maybe a dozen voyages at most; but you
know me, and I knows you; though you command the ship, and I work before
the mast. Now I axes you, sir, should you say Isaac Aiken was the man to
take a sugar-loaf, or a cocked hat, for the Peak o' Teneriffe?"

"As likely as I am myself, Isaac."

"No commander can say fairer nor that," said Isaac, with dignity. "Well,
then, your honor, I'll tell ye the truth, and no lie. We was bound for
Teneriffe with a fair wind, though not so much of it as we wanted, by
reason she was a good sea-boat, but broad in the bows. The Peak hove in
sight in the sky, and all the glasses was at her. She lay a point or two
on our weather quarter like, full two hours, and then she just melted
away like a lump o' sugar. We kept on our course a day and a half, and at
last we sighted the real Peak, and anchored off the port; whereby, when
we saw Teneriffe Peak in the sky to winnard, she lay a hundred leagues to
board, s'help me God!"

"That is wonderful," said General Rolleston.

"That will do, Isaac," said the captain. "Mr. Butt, double his grog for a
week, for having seen more than I have."

The captain and General Rolleston had a long discussion; but the result
was, they determined to go to Easter Island first, for General Rolleston
was a soldier, and had learned to obey as well as command. He saw no
sufficient ground for deviating from Wardlaw's positive instructions.

This decision soon became known throughout the ship. She was to weigh
anchor at 11 A.M. next day, by high water.

At eight next morning, Captain Moreland and General Rolleston being on
deck, one of the ship's boys, a regular pet, with rosy cheeks and black
eyes, comes up to the gentlemen, takes off his cap, and, panting audibly
at his own audacity, shoves a paper into General Rolleston's hand and
scuds away for his life.

"This won't do," said the captain, sternly.

The high-bred soldier handed the paper