e, it would
have made no difference with that ship; but if _I_ lose a vessel, I
don't want to be talked about as he was. I went mate with him two
voyages, and he'd put on his night-gown and turn in comfortably every
night, and leave his mates to call him; but I never could do that. I
don't find fault with any man that can; only it's not my way."

"But don't you feel sleepy, Captain Cope?" asked Mrs. Bates.

"Not when I'm on deck, Ma'am; though, when I first went mate, I could
sleep anyhow and anywhere. I sailed out of Boston to South America, in a
topsail-schooner, with an old fellow by the name of Eaton,--just the
strangest old scamp you ever dreamed of. I suppose by rights he ought to
have been in the hospital; he certainly was the nearest to crazy and not
be it. He used to keep a long pole by him on deck,--a pole with a sharp
spike in one end,--and any man who'd get near enough to him to let him
have a chance would feel that spike. I've known him to keep the cook up
till midnight frying doughnuts; then he'd call all hands aft and range
'em on the quarter-deck, and go round with his hat off and a plate of
doughnuts in his hand, saying, as polite as you please, 'Here, my man,
won't you take a doughnut?--they won't hurt you; nice and light; had
them fried a purpose for you.' And then he'd get a bottle of wine or
Curacoa cordial, and go round with a glass to each man, and make him
take a drink. You'd see the poor fellows all of a shake, not knowing how
to take it,--afraid to refuse, and afraid still more, if they didn't,
that the old man would play 'em some confounded trick. In the midst of
it all, he'd seem as if he'd woke up out of a dream, and he'd sing out,
in a way that made them fellows scatter, 'What the ---- are all you men
doing here at this time of night? Go forrard, every man jack of you! Go
forrard, I tell you!' and it was 'Devil take the hindmost!'

"Well,--the old man was always on the look-out to catch the watch
sleeping. He never seemed to sleep much himself;--I've heard _that's_ a
sign of craziness;--and the more he tried, the more sure we were to try
it every chance we had. So sure as the old man caught you at it, he'd
give you a bucketful of water, slap over you, and then follow it up with
the bucket at your head. Fletcher, the second mate, and I, got so we
could tell the moment he put foot on the companion-way, and, no matter
how sound we were, we'd be on our feet before he could get on deck. But
Fl