move, as if in
a high wind. He drew on the pipe once more, and blew out another cloud
of smoke. He knew what was coming, and in fact the same thing happened
that had happened to him before. The white cloud churned about, with its
barber-poles and jets of fire, coming down closer and closer upon him,
and in a jiffy he was sitting in midair on his hassock, and then he felt
himself falling, falling; and as he struck the bottom with a jar, he
heard, very distinctly, a knock on the door; and he was sitting again on
his hassock at Aunt Amanda's feet in the quiet room, with no sign of a
cloud anywhere to be seen.

"Come in!" he heard Mr. Toby cry.

The door opened, and in walked Mr. Lemuel Mizzen, A.B., as cool as a
cucumber.

He took off his flat blue cap with the black ribbon, and made a bow to
the company.

"Piped me aft again, and good evening to you all!" said he, in his
hoarse voice. "Lemuel Mizzen, A.B.! That's me! What'll it be? All ready
for orders, skipper! It was just half past by the starboard watch, and
the skippers their apples were quietly peeling, when I locked up the
last of the lemons and Scotch, and lay on my bed looking up at the
ceiling, to snatch forty winks, as I foolishly reckoned; but just as I
thinks, 'Thirty-first, thirty-second,' there's a ring at the bell of the
big front-door, and the mates come and yell that I'm wanted ashore; so I
tucks in my cap the eight points of my nap, and just before stopping to
turn down the lights, I runs to the dresser and puts it to rights, and
then before giving a last look behind, I goes to the bed and takes off
the spread, and lays out to air the three sheets in the wind! And here I
be," concluded the Able Seaman, "all ready for orders." And he looked
very hard at Freddie.

"Well!" said Aunt Amanda, gasping. "I never in my life heard such a----"

"I'll tell you what it is, Mr. Mizzen," said Toby. "It's about
Correction Island, on the Spanish Main."

"Ay, ay, sir!" said Mr. Mizzen. "Would you like to go there?"

"Ah!" said everyone at once, except Mr. Hanlon, who nodded his head.

"No trouble at all," said Mr. Mizzen. "Just step into The Sieve, and
we'll be off. A sweet little bark is The Sieve, provided there's plenty
of dippers; but we always go well provided. Is the whole party going?"

"One moment, if you please," said the Sly Old Codger. "There is one
little point on which I--that is to say--Will there be any expense?"

"Not a penny," said Mr. Mizze