last, Tom Leach, who is now master of a ship of his own, had
he been brought up to it properly, he would have made as
conscientious a parson as did his grandfather before him. Such a man
would have been a seaman, as well as a parson. I have little to say
against St. Peter or St. Andrew, but, in my judgment, they were none
the better saints for having been fishermen; and, if the truth were
known, I dare say they were at the bottom of introducing such
lubberly phrases into the Bible, as 'casting-anchor,' and 'cable-
rope."

"Pray, sir," asked the commodore, with dignity, "what are _you_ in
the practice of saying, when you speak of such matters; for, to be
frank with you, _we_ always use these terms on these lakes."

"Ay, ay, there is a fresh-water smell about them. We say 'anchor,' or
'let go the anchor,' or 'dropped the anchor,' or some such reasonable
expression, and not 'cast anchor,' as if a bit of iron, weighing two
or three tons, is to be jerked about like a stone big enough to kill
a bird with. As for the 'cable-rope,' as you call it, we say the
'cable,' or 'the chain,' or 'the ground tackle,' according to reason
and circumstances. You never hear a real 'salt' flourishing his
'cable-ropes,' and his 'casting-anchors,' which are altogether too
sentimental and particular for his manner of speaking. As for
'ropes,' I suppose you have not got to be a commodore, and need being
told how many there are in a ship."

"I do not pretend to have counted them, but I have seen a ship, sir,
and one under full sail, too, and I know there were as many ropes
about her as there are pines on the Vision."

"Are there more than seven of these trees on your mountain? for that
is just the number of ropes in a merchant-man; though a man-of-war's-
man counts one or two more."

"You astonish me, sir! But seven ropes in a ship?--I should have said
there are seven hundred!"

"I dare say, I dare say; that is just the way in which a landsman
pretends to criticise a vessel. As for the ropes, I will now give you
their names, and then you can lay athwart hawse of these canoe
gentry, by the hour, and teach them rigging and modesty, both at the
same time. In the first place," continued the captain, jerking at his
line, and then beginning to count on his fingers--"There is the 'man-
rope;' then come the 'bucket-rope,' the 'tiller-rope,' the 'bolt-
rope,' the 'foot-rope,' the 'top-rope,' and the 'limber-rope.' I have
followed the seas, now, mor