the
usual privations, incidental to the life of a sailor; but, as there
was nothing particularly worthy of notice in the first seven or eight
years of my sailor's life, I shall pass at once to the most
interesting event in a career of no trifling variety. It is now
upwards of two years since I went out chief mate of my old ship, under
the command of my first friend, Captain Fleetwood, who was a clever,
active seaman himself, and well qualified to make those under him the
same. We had a crew of twenty-five young and able fellows, with, as
usual, a sprinkling of black sheep among them. Our passengers were
four in number--a gentleman and his wife, and two young ladies, going
out to Bombay under their protection; all agreeable and well-informed
people, and the young ladies blessed with a tolerable share of beauty.
Time passed very pleasantly with us, for we were uncommonly favoured
in wind and weather; and our captain, who was as kind and benevolent
as a man, as he was strict and unflinching as an officer, delighted in
promoting to the utmost every plan for the comfort and amusement of
the crew.

"Och, isn't he a broth of a boy, now, that captain of ours?" I heard
one of our men say to another, on one of the quiet tropical evenings,
when the crew were enjoying themselves in the "waist," and the captain
was whirling one of the ladies round in a waltz on the quarterdeck.
"He's as full of fun as a monkey."

"Take care you don't shave the monkey too close, though, Mike, or
perhaps the _cat_ will shave _you_."

"Is it the cat you mane?" replied Mike; "then, by the powers, it's
myself that's not afeered for the 'cat,' for she never wags her tail
here but when a man's either an ass or a skulk, and no man can say
black's the white of the eye of Mike Delaney. But I say, Tom, hasn't
this been an out-and-out passage? Why, we've never had nothing to do
but to spin yarns and knot them; we might have stowed away the
reef-points in the hold, we've never had no 'casion for them, and as
for salt water, we haven't had a breeze to wash our faces for us since
we left home. Blowed if we shan't get too fine for our work by and
by--reg'lar gentlemen afloat. I think I'll sport a pair of them
overalls that the long-shore beggars call gloves, to keep my flippers
white," said Mike--at the same time spreading out a pair as dirty as
the back of a chimney and as broad as the back of a skate.

"Gloves and delicate flippers like that!" answered his