and my lady came to a parley. She was too sick to
get out of bed, and he was not able to hoist her up without assistance;
so being, as I suppose, pretty well tired of lying with her head three
feet lower than her heels, she consented, provided that she was properly
kivered up, to allow us to come in and put all to rights. Well, first
she made Sir Hercules throw over her his two boat cloaks, but that
wouldn't do; so he threw the green cloth from off the table, but that
warn't enough for her delicate sensibility, and she hollered from under
the clothes for more kivering; so Sir Hercules sent for two of the
ship's ensigns, and coiled away the bunting on her till it was as high
as a haycock, and then we were permitted to come in and hoist her
ladyship up again to the battens. Fortunately it was not a slippery
hitch that had let her down by the run, but the lanyard had given way
from my lady's own weight, so my back was not scratched after all.
Women ain't no good on board, Jack, that's sartain."

But I must now introduce a more important personage than even Lady
Hercules, which is my mother. They say "like master, like man," and I
may add, "like lady, like maid." Lady Hercules was fine, but her maid
was still finer. Most people when they write their biography, if their
parents were poor, inform you that they left them a good name and
nothing else. Some parents cannot even do that; but all parents can at
all events leave their children a _pretty_ name, by taking a little
trouble at their baptism. My mother's name was Araminta, which, as my
father truly observed, was "a touch above the common." She had
originally gone into service as a nursery maid, living in her first
situation one year and nine months; in her second she remained two years
and four months; then she left to better herself, and obtained the
situation of nurse in a family where she remained two years and one
month; after which Lady Hercules then having a child of a year old, she
was received into her service. At three years old the child died, and
my mother was promoted to the situation of lady's maid. This
advancement quite spoiled her; she was prouder than her mistress, and
gave herself ten times more airs, and when, at first, my father (who as
coxswain was constantly up at the house) offered to speak to her, she
turned away from him in most ineffable disdain. Now my father was at
that time about thirty years of age, and thought no small beer of
h