preliminaries had been duly observed, "who was, like myself,
a man that passed more of his time on the water than on dry ground;
though, as he was nothing more than a fisherman, he generally kept the
land aboard which is, after all, little better than living on it
altogether Howsomever, when I went, I made a broad offing at once,
fetching up on the other side of the Horn, the very first passage I made;
which was no small journey for a new beginner; but then, as I was only
eight years old"----

"Eight! you are now speaking of yourself," interrupted the disappointed
governess.

"Certain, Madam; and, though genteeler people might be talked of, it would
be hard to turn the conversation on any man who knows better how to rig or
how to strip a ship. I was beginning at the right end of my story; but, as
I fancied your Ladyship might not choose to waste time in hearing
concerning my father and mother, I cut the matter short, by striking in at
eight years old, overlooking all about my birth and name, and such other
matters as are usually logged, in a fashion out of all reason, in your
everyday sort of narratives."

"Proceed," she rejoined, with a species of compelled resignation.

"My mind is pretty much like a ship that is about to slip off its ways,"
resumed Fid. "If she makes a fair start, and there is neither jam nor
dry-rub, smack see goes into the water, like a sail let run in a calm;
but, if she once brings up, a good deal of labour is to be gone through to
set her in motion again. Now, in order to wedge up my ideas, and to get
the story slushed, so that I can slip through it with ease, it is needful
to overrun the part which I have just let go; which is, how my father was
a fisherman, and how I doubled the Horn--Ah! here I have it again, clear
of kinks, fake above fake, like a well-coiled cable; so that I can pay it
out as easily as the boatswain's yeoman can lay his hand on a bit of
ratling stuff. Well, I doubled the Horn, as I was saying, and might have
been the matter of four years cruising about among the islands and seas of
those parts, which were none of the best known then, or for that matter,
now. After this, I served in his Majesty's fleet a whole war, and got as
much honour as I could stow beneath hatches. Well, then, I fell in with
the Guinea--the black, my Lady, that you see turning in a new
clue-garnet-block for the starboard clue of the fore-course."

"Ay; then you fell in with the African," said the R