age, he seized
the four corners of the table-cloth, and gathering the tea-things and
food in the sack, threw the whole overboard into the bay. In a flash,
the tigress fastened on his scanty locks with one hand, while, with
the other, she pummelled his eyes and nose. Badly used as he was, I
must confess that the captain proved too generous to retaliate on that
portion of his spouse where female charms are most bewitching and
visible; still, I am much mistaken if the sound spanking she received
did not elsewhere leave marks of physical vigor that would have been
creditable to a pugilist.

It was remarkable that these human tornados were as violent and brief
as those which scourge tropical lands as well as tropical characters.
In a quarter of an hour there was a dead calm. The silence of the
night, on those still and star-lit waters, was only broken by a sort
of chirrup, that might have been mistaken for a cricket, but which I
think was _a kiss_. Indeed, I was rapidly going off again to sleep,
when I was called to give the key of the spirit-locker,--a glorious
resource that never failed as a solemn seal of reconciliation and
bliss.

Next morning, before I awoke, the captain went ashore, and when his
wife, at breakfast, inquired my knowledge of the night's affray, my
gallantry forced me to confess that I was one of the soundest sleepers
on earth or water, and, moreover, that I was surprised to learn there
had been the least difference between such happy partners. In spite of
my simplicity, the lady insisted on confiding her griefs, with the
assurance that she would not have been half so angry had not her
spouse foolishly thrown her silver spoons into the sea, with the bread
and butter. She grew quite eloquent on the pleasures of married life,
and told me of many a similar reproof she had been forced to give her
husband during their voyages. It did him good, she said, and kept him
wholesome. In fact, she hoped, that if ever I married, I would have
the luck to win a guardian like herself. Of course, I was again most
gallantly silent. Still, I could not help reserving a decision as to
the merits of matrimony; for present appearances certainly did not
demonstrate the bliss I had so often read and heard of. At any rate, I
resolved, that if ever I ventured upon a trial of love, it should, at
least, in the first instance, be love _without_ liquor!

On our return to Europe we called at Dover for orders, and found that
Antwerp w