y; "but there is
things, you know."

"Oh yes, I do know that, Tom--such as setting sail with a black cat on
board."

"Oh, well, sir, come!" protested the sailor warmly. "You can't say as a
man's a hidjit for believing that. Something always happens if you do
that."

"I could say so, Tom," replied the middy, "but I'm not going to."

"Well, sir, begging your pardon as gentleman, I'm werry sorry for it;
but there, you're very young."

"Go on, Tom."

"That's all, sir. I warn't going to say no more."

"But you are thinking a deal more. That was as good as saying that I'm
very young and don't know any better."

"Oh, I didn't go so far as to think that, sir, because you're a hofficer
and a gentleman, and a scholar who has larnt more things than I ever
heerd of; but still, sir, I dessay you won't mind owning as a fellow as
has been at sea from fourteen to four-and-thirty has picked up things
such as you couldn't larn at school."

"Black cats, for instance, Tom?"

"Yes, sir. Ah, you may laugh to yourself, but there's more than you
think of about a black cat."

"A black skin, for instance, Tom, and if the poor brute was killed and
skinned he'd look exactly like a white cat or a tortoise-shell."

"Oh, that's his skin, sir; it's his nature."

"Pooh! What can there be in a black cat's nature?"

"Don't know; that's the mystery on it."

"Can't you explain what the mystery is?"

"No, sir, and I never met a shipmate as could."

"Bother the cat! It's all rubbish, Tom."

"Yes, sir, and it bothers the man; but there it is, all the same. You
ask any sailor chap, and--"

"Yes, I know, Tom; and he'll talk just as much nonsense as you."

"P'raps so, sir, but something bad allus happens to a ship as has a
black cat aboard."

"And something always happens to a ship that has any cat on board. And
what is more, something always happens to a ship that has no cat at all
on board. Look at our _Seafowl_, for instance."

"Yes, sir, you may well say that," said the man sadly. "The chaps have
talked about it a deal, and we all says as she's an unfortnit ship."

"Oh, you all think so, do you, Tom?"

"Yes, sir, we do," said the man solemnly.

"Then you may depend upon it, Tom, that there's a black cat hidden away
somewhere in the hold."

"Ah! Come aboard, sir, in port, after the rats? That would account for
it, sir, and 'splain it all," cried the man eagerly. "You think that's
it, do you, sir?"

"No, I don