a
good allowance of grog, and an hour to rest themselves. It was a
beautiful moonlight night: the sails were just asleep and no more; but
the vessel was heavy, from the water in her, and we dragged slowly
along. The captain, who had gone down below with the first mate, came
up from the cabin, and said to the men, `Now, my lads, we'll set to
again;' when suddenly there was a loud, melancholy _miaw_! which
terrified us all. We looked from whence the sound appeared to come, and
there, on the launch turned over amidship, we beheld the ghost of the
black tom cat, so large, so black, with the broad moonlight shining on
it; and so thin, it was the skeleton of the cat, only it looked as black
as ever; its back was humped up and its tail curved; and, as it stood
out in the broad moonlight, it did look twice as big as the original
cat, which was the biggest I ever saw. Well, the men actually screamed;
they ran aft, upsetting the captain and mate, and rolling over them and
hiding their faces, with `Lord have mercy on us!' and `God forgive our
sins!' and `Oh! we're lost, we're lost!' and every sort of crying and
groaning that could be thought of. At last the captain gets up from
under them in a great rage and looks forward to see what was the matter,
and there he sees the ghost of the tom cat standing just in the same
place; and it gave another miserable _miaw_! `Why,' cried the captain
(who had his grog on board, and was as brave as brass), `it is the
cussed cat himself. Stop a moment.' Down he goes to the cabin, reels
up the hatchway again with his double-barrelled gun, and lets fly at
it"--(here Dick lowered his voice to almost a whisper)--"the cat gave a
shriek--and then--"

Here, during the pause, Bill put out his finger and thumb to snuff the
candle, but his hand shook--he snuffed it out, and we were all left in
darkness. I can hardly describe the feeling which appeared to pervade
the whole of our party. Every one was shuffling and crowding with their
shoulders, but still no one moved from his place.

"Well," said Dick, the narrator, in a quiet subdued voice, "why don't
one of you go and fetch a light? Come, jump up, Bill, you topped it
out."

"Ay, ay," replied Bill, evidently shaking; "where's the candle?"

"Here," said one of the boys, handing it to him.

"Well, then, jump up yourself you young whelp, you're younger than me."

"I didn't put it out," replied the boy, whining.

"Up immediately, or I'll bre