the same direction as we were. When we got up I looked about me as
well as I could, but I saw no rocks or vessels in collision with us. The
waves were not breaking over us, but four or five men standing on the
bulwarks were pulling things like monstrous grubs out of a sort of
trough, and chucking them with more or less accuracy at the heads of the
sailors who gathered round.

"What is it, Alister?" I asked.

"It's just the serving out of the hammocks that they sleep in," Alister
replied. "I'm thinking we'll not be entitled to them."

"What's that fellow yelling about?"

"He's crying to them to respond to their names and numbers. Whisht, man!
till I hear his unchristian lingo and see if he cries on us."

But in a few minutes the crowd had dispersed, and the hammock-servers
with them, and Alister and I were left alone. I felt foolish, and I
suppose looked so, for Alister burst out laughing and said--"Hech,
laddie! it's a small matter. We'll find a corner to sleep in. And let me
tell ye I've tried getting into a hammock myself, and--"

"Hi! you lads!"

In no small confusion at having been found idle and together, we started
to salute the third mate, who pointed to a sailor behind him, and
said--"Follow Francis, and he'll give you hammocks and blankets, and
show you how to swing and stow them."

We both exclaimed--"Thank you, sir!" with such warmth that as he
returned our renewed salutations he added--"I hear good accounts of
both of you. Keep it up, and you'll do."

Alister's sentence had been left unfinished, but I learnt the rest of it by
experience. We scrambled down after Francis till we seemed to be about the
level where we had stowed away. I did not feel any the better for the
stuffiness of the air and an abominable smell of black beetles, but I
stumbled along till we arrived in a very tiny little office where the
purser sat surrounded by bags of ships' biscuits (which they pleasantly
call "bread" at sea) and with bins of sugar, coffee, &c., &c. I dare say
the stuffiness made him cross (as the nasty smells used to make us in Uncle
Henry's office), for he used a good deal of bad language, and seemed very
unwilling to let us have the hammocks and blankets. However, Francis got
them and banged us well with them before giving them to us to carry. They
were just like the others--canvas-coloured sausages wound about with tarred
rope; and warning us to observe how they were fastened up, as we should
have to put t