y, Master Cringle, you are surely out of your watch. Why, what
are you doing here, eh?"

I stepped up to him, and told him the truth, that, being overfatigued,
I had fallen asleep in the top.

"Well, well, boy," said he, "never mind, go below, and turn in; if you
don't take your rest, you never will be a sailor."

"But what do you see aloft?" glancing his eye upwards, and all the crew
on deck, as I passed them, looked anxiously up also amongst the
rigging, as if wondering what I saw there, for I had been so chilled in
my snoose, that my neck, from resting in the cold on the coil of rope,
had become stiffened and rigid to an intolerable degree; and although,
when I first came on deck, I had, by a strong exertion, brought my
_caput_ to its proper bearings, yet the moment I was dismissed by my
superior officer, I for my own comfort was glad to conform to the
contraction of the muscle, whereby I once more strayed along the deck,
_glowering_ up into the heavens, as if I had seen some wonderful sight
there.

"What do you see aloft?" repeated Mr. Treenail, while the crew, greatly
puzzled, continued to follow my eyes, as they thought, and to stare up
into the rigging.

"Why, sir, I have thereby got a stiff neck--that's all, sir."

"Go and turn in at once, my good boy--make haste, now; tell our steward
to give you a glass of hot grog, and mind your hand that you don't get
sick."

I did as was desired, swallowed the grog, and turned in; but I could
not have been in bed above an hour, when the drum beat to quarters, and
I had once more to bundle out on the cold wet deck, where I found all
excitement. At the time I speak of, we had been beaten by the
Americans in several actions of single ships, and our discipline
improved in proportion as we came to learn, by sad experience, that the
enemy was not to be undervalued. I found that there was a ship in
sight, right ahead of us--apparently carrying all sail. A group of
officers were on the forecastle with night-glasses, the whole crew
being stationed in dark clusters round the guns at quarters. Several
of the American skippers were forward amongst us, and they were of
opinion that the chase was a man-of-war, although our own people seemed
to doubt this. One of the skippers insisted that she was the _Hornet_,
from the unusual shortness of her lower masts, and the immense
squareness of her yards. But the puzzle was, if it were the _Hornet_,
why she did not shorten sail.