TER A BALL; O'BRIEN MEETS WITH AN
ACCIDENT.

The next morning I was on deck at seven bells, to see the hammocks
stowed, when I was witness to Mr Falcon, the first lieutenant, having
recourse to one of his remedies to cure a mizen-top-boy of smoking, a
practice to which he had a great aversion. He never interfered with the
men smoking in the galley, or chewing tobacco; but he prevented the
boys, that is, lads under twenty or thereabouts, from indulging in the
habit too early. The first lieutenant smelt the tobacco as the boy
passed him on the quarter-deck. "Why, Neill, you have been smoking,"
said the first lieutenant. "I thought you were aware that I did not
permit such lads as you to use tobacco."

"If you please, sir," replied the mizen-top-boy, touching his hat, "I'se
got worms, and they say that smoking be good for them."

"Good for them!" said the first lieutenant; "yes, very good for them but
very bad for you. Why, my good fellow, they'll thrive upon tobacco
until they grow as large as conger eels. Heat is what the worms are
fond of; but cold--cold will kill them. Now I'll cure you.
Quarter-master, come here. Walk this boy up and down the weather
gangway, and every time you get forward abreast of the main-tack block,
put his mouth to windward, squeeze him sharp by the nape of the neck
until he opens his mouth wide, and there keep him and let the cold air
blow down his throat, while you count ten; then walk him aft, and when
you are forward again proceed as before.--Cold kills worms, my poor boy,
not tobacco--I wonder that you are not dead by this time."

A few nights afterwards, when we had the middle watch, O'Brien proceeded
with his story.

"Where was it that I left off?"

"You left off at the time that you were taken out of confinement."

"So I did, sure enough; and it was with no goodwill that I went to my
duty. However, as there was no help for it, I walked up and down the
deck as before, with my hands in my pockets, thinking of old Ireland,
and my great ancestor, Brien Borru. And so I went on behaving myself
like a real gentleman, and getting into no more scrapes, until the fleet
put into the Cove of Cork, and I found myself within a few miles of my
father's house. You may suppose that the anchor had hardly kissed the
mud before I went to the first lieutenant and asked leave to go on
shore. Now the first lieutenant was not in the sweetest of tempers,
seeing as how the captain had been hau