cording to mine. Fall-to,
dogs, and devour!--peck up the crumbs, scarecrows, as the Creole calls
you, and be filled. But, pause and be just, even to your own appetites.
Notwithstanding our lunch, let us dine. Let us divide the four loaves
into eight equal portions. There are six of us here, and Bill must have
his share. We will have more for our dinner, when the legs of mutton
make their appearance."

We drank each of us a bottle of porter, and finished our half-quartern
loaves with wonderful alacrity, Bill keeping us gladsome company. My
messmates then left the berth, pronouncing me a good fellow. The eighth
portion of soft tommy and butter, with a bottle of porter, I made the
servant leave on the table; and then sent him again to the bumboat, to
procure other necessaries, to make the accompaniments to our mutton
perfect.

In the meantime, Pigtop, who lay in his hammock, directly across the
window of our berth, had been a tantalised observer of all that had
passed. I crouched myself up in one corner of the hole, and was
gradually falling into disagreeable ruminations, when Mr Pigtop crept
out of his hammock and into the berth, and sat himself down as far from
me as possible.

"Rattlin," said he, at length, dolefully, "you have beaten me
dreadfully."

"It was your own seeking--I am sorry for your sufferings."

"Well--I thank ye for that same--I don't mean the beating--you know that
I stood up to you like a man. Is there malice between us?"

"On my part, none. Why did you provoke me?"

"I was wrong--infarnally wrong--and, may be, I would have owned it
before--but for your quick temper, and that hard punch in the chaps. I
have had the worst of it. It goes to my heart, Rattlin, that I, an old
sailor, and a man nearly forty, should be knocked about by a mere boy--
it is not decent--it is not becoming--it is not natural--I shall never
get over it. I wish I could undo the done things of yesterday."

"And so do I, heartily--fervently."

"Well--that is kindly said--and I old enough to be your father--and
twenty-five years at sea--beaten to a standstill. Sorry I ever entered
the cursed ship."

How much of all this, thought I, is genuine feeling, how much genuine
appetite? I was sorry for the poor fellow, however.

"Rattlin, owing to one crooked thing and another, we have lately fared
miserably. The ship has been a hell upon the waters. I am faint for
the want of something to support me. Is that pr