st
in my mind, which can be laid hold of at need."

"I hope you find that your hammock swings easily in my ship?"

"I'll not deny it, your Honour; for an easier craft, especially upon a
bow-line, might be hard to find."

"And the cruise?--I hope you also find the cruise such as a seaman loves."

"D'ye see, sir, I was sent from home with little schooling, and so I
seldom make so free as to pretend to read the Captain's orders."

"But still you have your inclinations," said Mrs. Wyllys, firmly, as
though determined to push the investigation even further than her
companion had intended.

"I can't say that I'm wanting in natural feeling, your Ladyship," returned
Fid, endeavouring to manifest his admiration of the sex, by the awkward
bow he made to the governess as its representative, "tho'f crosses and
mishaps have come athwart me as well as better men. I thought as strong a
splice was laid, between me and Kate Whiffle, as was ever turned into a
sheet-cable; but then came the law, with its regulations and shipping
articles, luffing short athwart my happiness, and making a wreck at once
of all the poor girl's hopes, and a Flemish account of my comfort."

"It was proved that she had another husband?" said the Rover, nodding his
head, understandingly.

"Four, your Honour. The girl had a love of company, and it grieved her to
the heart to see an empty house: But then, as it was seldom more than one
of us could be in port at a time, there was no such need to make the noise
they did about the trifle. But envy did it all, sir; envy, and the
greediness of the land-sharks. Had every woman in the parish as many
husbands as Kate, the devil a bit would they have taken up the precious
time of judge and jury, in looking into the manner in which a wench like
her kept a quiet household."

"And, since that unfortunate repulse, you have kept yourself altogether
out of the hands of matrimony?"

"Ay, ay; _since_, your Honour," returned Fid, giving his Commander another
of those droll looks, in which a peculiar cunning struggled with a more
direct and straight-going honesty, "_since_, as you say rightly, sir;
though they talked of a small matter of a bargain that I had made with
another woman, myself; but, in overhauling the affair, they found, that,
as the shipping articles with poor Kate wouldn't hold together, why, they
could make nothing at all of me; so I was white-washed like a queen's
parlour and sent adrift."

"And all this