oth. I am told it has
rather an amiable look, while it lasts."

"It has the look of a man who is fitter for his mother's nursery than a
gale of wind. But I am glad it is so soon over."

"No one wears the same face long now-a-days, Bignall.--And so this Mr Ark
is not any body, after all.

"I know not what you call 'any body,' sir; but, if sterling courage, great
professional merit, and stern loyalty, count for any thing on your late
cruising grounds, Captain Howard, Henry Ark will soon be in command of a
frigate."

"Perhaps, if one only knew exactly on what to found his claims," continued
the Rover, with a smile so kind, and a voice so insinuating, that they
half counteracted the effect of his assumed manner, "a word might be
dropped, in a letter home, that should do the youth no harm."

"I would to Heaven I dare but reveal the nature of the service he is on!"
eagerly returned the warm-hearted old seaman, who was as quick to forget,
as he was sudden to feel, disgust. "You may, however, safely say, from his
general character, that it is honourable, hazardous, and has the entire
good of his Majesty's subjects in view. Indeed, an hour has scarcely gone
by since I thought that, it was completely successful.--Do you often set
your lofty sails, Captain Howard, while the heavier canvas is rolled upon
the yards? To me, a ship clothed in that style looks something like a man
with his coat on, before he has cased his legs in the lower garment."

"You allude to the accident of my maintop-gallant-sail getting loose when
you first made me?"

"I mean no other. We had caught a glimpse of your spars with the glass;
but had lost you altogether, when the flying duck met the eye of a
look-out. To say the least, it, was remarkable, and it might have proved
an awkward circumstance."

"Ah! I often do things in that way, in order to be odd. It is a sign of
cleverness to be odd, you know.--But I, too, am sent into these seas on a
special errand."

"Such as what?" bluntly demanded his companion with an uneasiness about
his frowning eye that he was far too simple-minded to conceal.

"To look for a ship that will certainly give me a famous lift, should I
have the good luck to fall in with her. For some time, I took you for the
very gentle man I was in search of; and I do assure you, if your signals
had not been so very unexceptionable, something serious might have
happened between us."

"And pray, sir, for whom did you take me?"

"F