ect for each other. They were above anything like a
namby-pamby, soft sighing, do-sweetest, kiss-me style of love. My
father made his offer from the deck of his ship, as she was standing out
of harbour, and my mother answered him from the shore through a
speaking-trumpet. The truth was, that when the owners heard that she
was a woman, they didn't approve of her going as mate; they thought that
it would invalidate the insurance.

"The wind fell outside, so he dropped anchor and pulled on shore, and
was married, and, of course, off she went to sea with him. A very
useful wife, too, she made, for though she didn't wear the breeches, she
could take command of the ship better than any one else on board. Thus
it was that I came to be born at sea. There was a terrific gale
blowing, and the ship was running under bare poles during the time that
important event in the world's history occurred.

"`The wind it whistled, the porpoise roll'd,
The dolphins rear'd their backs of gold;
And never was heard such an outcry wild
As welcomed to life the ocean-child.'

"I believe you, my hearties, that was a gale! I don't believe the sea
ever ran so high before, or has ever run so high since. We were fully
half an hour going up the side of one sea, and nearly a quarter sliding
down into the trough on the other--so I have been told: I cannot say
that I remember the circumstance, though I do recollect things which
happened a long time ago.

"I was a precocious child, let me tell you. I had as fine a set of
teeth as ever cracked biscuit by the time I was six months old, and
lived upon lobscouse and porter. I was weaned by that time, and I
wasn't two years old when I could go aloft like a monkey. It wouldn't
have done for me to have been like any every-day sort of baby."

I was almost inclined to believe Mr Johnson's assertions, for, as I
looked at the huge red-nosed man before me, I could scarcely persuade
myself that he had ever been a baby in long clothes.

"Speaking of monkeys," continued Mr Johnson, winking his eye, "I once
had a desperate fight with one, when I wasn't much more than three years
old. I was sitting on the main-truck, with my legs dangling down, as
was my custom when I wanted a good allowance of fresh air. We had a
monkey aboard--a mischievous chap,--and when he saw me, he swarmed up
the mast, and, putting up his paw, snatched a biscuit out of my
jacket-pocket. I gave him a slap on the head, and i