et, died one by
one. They were hove over the side in the same fashion; and, as I
watched their shelly backs floating astern, I could see flocks of sea-
birds settle down on them, evidently rejoicing in having such an
unexpected feast. A pig, too, was killed one day, supplying us in the
cabin with savoury roast pork, which was an agreeable change from the
salt beef and boiled fowls that were our ordinary fare--although, as the
hen-coops were becoming rapidly untenanted, I should not have much
longer to complain of any monotony of the latter item of our diet, I
thought.

But, if there was nothing to chronicle of any stirring character I
enjoyed the voyage immensely, being as happy as the day was long.

It seemed like paradise to me, sailing on and on before the genial
western wind over the wide blue sea, with an azure sky above unflecked
by a cloud in the daytime and studded with a glorious galaxy of stars at
night that made the heavens look like a casket of jewels.

Before long, I became quite a sailor too, being able to make my way
aloft to the cross-trees without help, and I was learning by familiarity
every rope whose name Moggridge had before taught me; for, when the
captain saw that I was careful through his repeated cautions, and also
had Jackson to look after me, he withdrew the embargo he had placed on
my mounting the rigging. Indeed, he was kind enough to let me do duty
as an "extra hand," as I loved to consider myself, in Mr Marline's
watch, or when he himself was on deck.

Another great delight I had consisted in going out on the bowsprit and
fishing for bonitoes and dolphins with a bit of red or white cloth tied
to a hook, in the same way as one goes "reeling" for mackerel in the
Channel; and many a savoury supper, cooked surreptitiously by Jake in
his friend the cook's caboose, had I on the sly at night in the
fo'c's'le, when Captain Miles thought I had turned in and was snug
asleep in my bunk!

Day after day passed alike, with the exception, of course, of Sundays,
when the captain read prayers on the poop to the hands clustered round,
all dressed out in their best shore clothes, and with the decks
especially holystoned in honour of the day--the ship the while making
some couple of hundred miles every twenty-four hours on her onward way,
while scarcely shifting a sail or altering a brace from week's end to
week's end.

It was getting on towards the end of August, the wind having continued
fair fro