abs at her horns and tail, and somewhat excited her temper. Now, she
began to butt at us, and made us fly, right and left. Miss Susan was
capsized, and sent sprawling on the deck; and Nancy, highly delighted at
her victory, frisked off to the starboard side, where Mr Lukyn, with
all the dignity of a first-lieutenant, was walking the deck with his
glass under his arm. Nancy, either mistaking his long legs for the
stems of the trees and shrubs of her native hills, or wishing to repeat
the experiment which had succeeded so well with regard to Miss Susan,
made a furious butt at his calves while he was walking aft, unconscious
of her approach. The effect must have been beyond Nancy's utmost
expectations, as it was beyond ours. Our gallant first never appeared
very firm on his pins, and, the blow doubling his knees, down he came,
stern first, on the deck with his heels in the air, while the goat,
highly delighted at her performance, and totally unconscious of her
gross infraction of naval discipline, frolicked off forward in search of
fresh adventures.

Just at that moment up came Billy Wise with a message from the captain.

Now Mr Lukyn rarely gave way to anger, but this was an occasion to try
his temper. Picking himself up from his undignified posture, "Hang the
goat," he exclaimed in a loud tone; "who let the creature loose?" Billy
did not know, but having delivered his message, away he went forward;
while we endeavoured to conceal, as far as we could, the fits of
laughter in which we were indulging. Miss Susan's real name was Jacob
Spellman. Some short time after this, I was going along the main-deck
with him, when we found the captain's steward very busy splicing an eye
in a rope, close to the cattle-pen, where Nancy had her abode. We
walked on a little way, and then turned round to watch him. Having
formed a running noose, he put it round the goat's neck, and dragged her
out of the pen. He then got a tub and made her stand upon it while he
passed the rope over a hook in the beam above. Hauling away as hard as
he could, he gave the tub a kick, and there hung poor Nancy, in a most
uncomfortable position, very nearly with her neck dislocated; but as he
had not calculated on her power of standing on her hind legs, the result
he expected was unaccomplished, and she was not altogether deprived of
life. She struggled, however, so violently that she would very soon
have been strangled had not old Perigal, who was