vant would indeed eat dirt," replied
Huckaback.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

I meant to imply, that so powerful was the wind, it almost bore me up,
and when I first struck the water, which I did upon the summit of a
wave, I bounded off again and _ricochetted_ several times from one wave
to another, like the shot fired from a gun along the surface of the sea,
or the oyster-shell skimmed over the lake by the truant child. The last
bound that I gave, pitched me into the rigging of a small vessel on her
beam-ends, and I hardly had time to fetch my breath before she turned
over. I scrambled up her bends, and fixed myself astride upon her keel.

There I remained for two or three hours, when the hurricane was
exhausted from its own violence. The clouds disappeared, the sun burst
out in all its splendour, the sea recovered its former tranquillity, and
Nature seemed as if she was maliciously smiling at her own mischief.
The land was close to me, and the vessel drifted on shore. I found that
I was at the Isle of France, having, in the course of twelve hours thus
miraculously shifted my position from one side of the globe unto the
other. I found the island in a sad state of devastation; the labour of
years had been destroyed in the fury of an hour--the crops were swept
away--the houses were levelled to the ground--the vessels in fragments
on the beach--all was misery and desolation. I was however kindly
received by my countrymen, who were the inhabitants of the isle; and, in
four-and-twenty hours, we all danced and sang as before. I invented a
very pretty quadrille, called the Hurricane, which threw the whole
island into an ecstasy, and recompensed them for all their sufferings.
But I was anxious to return home, and a Dutch vessel proceeding straight
to Marseilles, I thought myself fortunate to obtain a passage upon the
same terms as those which had enabled me to quit the West Indies. We
sailed, but before we had been twenty-four hours at sea, I found that
the captain was a violent man, and a most dreadful tyrant. I was not
very strong; and not being able to perform the duty before the mast, to
which I had not been accustomed, I was beat so unmercifully, that I was
debating in my mind, whether I should kill the captain and then jump
overboard, or submit to my hard fate; but one night as I lay groaning on
the forecastle after a punishment I had received from the captain, which