small of my back
was settling down indefinitely; I felt as if some gigantic archer had
hold of me for a bow.

But there was another plan left. I triced up my hammock with all my
strength, so as to bring it wholly _above_ the tiers of pallets around
me. This done, by a last effort, I hoisted myself into it; but, alas!
it was much worse than before. My luckless hammock was stiff and
straight as a board; and there I was--laid out in it, with my nose
against the ceiling, like a dead man's against the lid of his coffin.

So at last I was fain to return to my old level, and moralise upon the
folly, in all arbitrary governments, of striving to get either _below_
or _above_ those whom legislation has placed upon an equality with
yourself.

Speaking of hammocks, recalls a circumstance that happened one night in
the Neversink. It was three or four times repeated, with various but
not fatal results.

The watch below was fast asleep on the berth-deck, where perfect
silence was reigning, when a sudden shock and a groan roused up all
hands; and the hem of a pair of white trowsers vanished up one of the
ladders at the fore-hatchway.

We ran toward the groan, and found a man lying on the deck; one end of
his hammock having given way, pitching his head close to three
twenty-four pound cannon shot, which must have been purposely placed in
that position. When it was discovered that this man had long been
suspected of being an _informer_ among the crew, little surprise and
less pleasure were evinced at his narrow escape.

CHAPTER XXI.

ONE REASON WHY MEN-OF-WAR'S MEN ARE, GENERALLY, SHORT-LIVED.

I cannot quit this matter of the hammocks without making mention of a
grievance among the sailors that ought to be redressed.

In a man-of-war at sea, the sailors have _watch and watch;_ that is,
through every twenty-four hours, they are on and off duty every four
hours. Now, the hammocks are piped down from the nettings (the open
space for stowing them, running round the top of the bulwarks) a little
after sunset, and piped up again when the forenoon watch is called, at
eight o'clock in the morning; so that during the daytime they are
inaccessible as pallets. This would be all well enough, did the sailors
have a complete night's rest; but every other night at sea, one watch
have only four hours in their hammocks. Indeed, deducting the time
allowed for the other watch to turn out; for yourself to arrange your
hammock, get into