an anchorage, and hove the "hull consarn"
to. Here they lay, and tossed and chafed, at their moorings, for a day
or two, without the slightest indication on the part of the weather to
abate the nuisance. So the commander of the schooner got in his little
"dug-out," and giving the aforesaid crew special injunctions to keep all
fast, he pulled off to shore to take a look around.

Now, it so fell out that in the course of a few hours' time after the
departure of the skipper, a snorting east wind sprang up, and not only
blew great guns, but chopped up a short, heavy sea, perfectly
astonishing and alarming to Hezekiah Perkins, in the rolling and
pitching schooner. It was Hez's first attempt at seafaring; and this
sort of reeling and waltzing about, as a matter of course, soon
discomboberated his bean basket, and set his head in a whirl and dancing
motion--better conceived by those who have seen the sea elephant than
described. Hez got dea-a-athly sick, so sick he could not budge from the
stern sheets, where he had taken a squat in the early commencement of
his difficulties. In the mean time, the skipper came down to the beach
and hailed the victim:

"Hel-LO! hel-LO!"

Hez feebly elevated his optics, and looking to the windward, where stood
his noble captain, he made an effort to say over something:

"Wha-a-t ye-e-e want?"

"What do I want? Why, yeou pesky critter, yeou, go for'ard thar and hist
the jib, take up the anchor, put your helm a-lee, and beat up to town!"

This was all very well, provided the skipper was there to superintend,
manage and carry out his voluble orders; but as the surf prevented him
from coming on board, and the lightness of Hez's head militated against
the almost superhuman possibility of carrying out the skipper's orders,
things remained _in statu quo_, the skipper ashore, and Hez fervently
wishing he was too.

"Ain't you a-going to stir round there, and save the vessel?" bawled the
excited captain.

"How on airth," groaned the horror-stricken mariner, "how on airth am I
to help it?"

"Wall, by Columbus, she'll go clean ashore, or blow eout to sea afore
long, sure as death!" responded the skipper; and before he had fairly
concluded his augury, sure enough, the halser parted, the schooner slew
round and made a bee-line _for Cowes and a market!_ This rather brought
Hezekiah to his oats--he riz, tottering and feeble, on his shaky pins,
and crawled forward to get up the jib.

"O ye-s, now ye