imself, as the saying goes. He was a tall, handsome man, indeed, so
good-looking that they used to call him "Handsome Jack" on board of the
Druid, and he had, moreover, a pigtail of most extraordinary size and
length, of which he was not a little proud, as it hung down far below
the waistband of his trousers. His hair was black and glossy, and his
lovelocks, as the sailors term the curls which they wear on their
temples, were of the most insinuating description. Now, as my father
told me, when he first saw my mother with her sky-scraping cap at the
back of her head, so different from the craft in general, he was very
much inclined to board her; but when she boomed him off in that style,
my father, who was quite the rage and fancy man among the ladies of
Sally Port and Castle Rag, hauled his wind in no time, hitching up his
white trousers and turning short round on his heel, so as to present his
back to her whenever they happened to meet. For a long time he gave her
a wide berth. Now this fact of my father returning her disdain had the
usual effect. At first she was very savage, and when she spoke of him
to Lady Hercules, she designated him as "that proud coxswain, who seemed
to think himself a greater man than Sir Hercules himself--with his
filthy pigtail, indeed!" My father also, when he spoke of her to the
boat's crew, termed her "that proud --- of a lady's maid," the word not
mentionable being both canine and feminine. Thus matters went on for
some time, until my mother, by a constant survey of my father's handsome
proportions, every day thought him to be a more proper man, and a few
advances on her part at last brought them to a mutual understanding.

CHAPTER TWO.

MY FATHER DOES WHAT MOST SAILORS DO--HE MAKES A FOOLISH MARRIAGE, ONE OF
THE CONSEQUENCES OF WHICH IS BROUGHT TO LIGHT AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER.

I have observed at the finale of my first chapter, that at last my
mother and father came to a good understanding; but at the same time
Madam Araminta (for so my mother insisted upon being called) took good
care to let my father understand that she considered that she was
lowering herself by surrendering up her charms to a captain's coxswain.
She informed him that her father might be said to have been royally
connected, being a king's messenger (and so, indeed, he might be
considered, having been a twopenny postman), and that her mother had
long scores against the first nobles in the land (she was