which before was pale, assumed a most
frightful appearance; his whole visage was distorted, and his frame
shaken by violent emotions. "Do you see that gum-gum?" said he. "No,"
said I, staring about me. "You don't?" said he. "No, I'll be damned if
I do," said I; "and what's more, I don't know what a gum-gum is," said I.
I really thought the Ram would have dropped. He drew me aside, and with
an expression of agony I shall never forget, said in a low whisper--'

'Dinner's on the table, ladies,' interrupted the steward's wife.

'Will you allow me?' said the captain, immediately suiting the action to
the word, and escorting Miss Julia Briggs to the cabin, with as much ease
as if he had finished the story.

'What an extraordinary circumstance!' ejaculated the same old gentleman,
preserving his listening attitude.

'What a traveller!' said the young ladies.

'What a singular name!' exclaimed the gentlemen, rather confused by the
coolness of the whole affair.

'I wish he had finished the story,' said an old lady. 'I wonder what a
gum-gum really is?'

'By Jove!' exclaimed Hardy, who until now had been lost in utter
amazement, 'I don't know what it may be in India, but in England I think
a gum-gum has very much the same meaning as a hum-bug.'

'How illiberal! how envious!' cried everybody, as they made for the
cabin, fully impressed with a belief in the captain's amazing adventures.
Helves was the sole lion for the remainder of the day--impudence and the
marvellous are pretty sure passports to any society.

The party had by this time reached their destination, and put about on
their return home. The wind, which had been with them the whole day, was
now directly in their teeth; the weather had become gradually more and
more overcast; and the sky, water, and shore, were all of that dull,
heavy, uniform lead-colour, which house-painters daub in the first
instance over a street-door which is gradually approaching a state of
convalescence. It had been 'spitting' with rain for the last half-hour,
and now began to pour in good earnest. The wind was freshening very
fast, and the waterman at the wheel had unequivocally expressed his
opinion that there would shortly be a squall. A slight emotion on the
part of the vessel, now and then, seemed to suggest the possibility of
its pitching to a very uncomfortable extent in the event of its blowing
harder; and every timber began to creak, as if the boat were an overladen
clo