gged his hull to one side, and avenged him with
the cooper's anvil, which, endways, we rammed home; a mess-mate shoved
in the dead man's bloody Scotch cap for the wad, and sent it flying
into the line-of-battle ship. By the god of war! boys, we hardly left
enough of that craft to boil a pot of water with. It was a hard day's
work--a sad day's work, my hearties. That night, when all was over, I
slept sound enough, with a box of cannister shot for my pillow! But you
ought to have seen the boat-load of Turkish flags one of our captains
carried home; he swore to dress his father's orchard in colours with
them, just as our spars are dressed for a gala day."

"Though you tormented the Turks at Navarino, noble Jack, yet you came
off yourself with only the loss of a splinter, it seems," said a
top-man, glancing at our cap-tain's maimed hand.

"Yes; but I and one of the Lieutenants had a narrower escape than that.
A shot struck the side of my port-hole, and sent the splinters right
and left. One took off my hat rim clean to my brow; another _razed_ the
Lieutenant's left boot, by slicing off the heel; a third shot killed my
powder-monkey without touching him."

"How, Jack?"

"It _whizzed_ the poor babe dead. He was seated on a _cheese of wads_
at the time, and after the dust of the pow-dered bulwarks had blown
away, I noticed he yet sat still, his eyes wide open. '_My little
hero!_' cried I, and I clapped him on the back; but he fell on his face
at my feet. I touched his heart, and found he was dead. There was not a
little finger mark on him."

Silence now fell upon the listeners for a time, broken at last by the
Second Captain of the Top.

"Noble Jack, I know you never brag, but tell us what you did yourself
that day?"

"Why, my hearties, I did not do quite as much as my gun. But I flatter
myself it was that gun that brought clown the Turkish Admiral's
main-mast; and the stump left wasn't long enough to make a wooden leg
for Lord Nelson."

"How? but I thought, by the way you pull a lock-string on board here,
and look along the sight, that you can steer a shot about right--hey,
Jack?"

"It was the Admiral of the fleet--God Almighty--who directed the shot
that dismasted the Turkish Admiral," said Jack; "I only pointed the
gun."

"But how did you feel, Jack, when the musket-ball carried away one of
your hooks there?"

"Feel! only a finger the lighter. I have seven more left, besides
thumbs; and they did good service