ee-fourths of a circle against the gloomy sky, he would
pleasantly hint to the briny forecastle-man who grasped the steering
spokes, or the old quartermaster at the compass, "Steady, old Tom
Scofield! Not so much, boys! Touch her lightly, Charley! don't you see
she's flying off?"--and again relapse within the folds of his
pea-jacket.

"Well, old gentleman, what are you pondering on?" "Why, Mr. Blank, I'm
thinking how pleasant it must be to have a menagerie on board ship in a
breeze like this; in case the animals should break loose, the tigers,
bears, hyenas, and the elephant, and the monkeys flying around the decks
in heaps, yelling, howling, and fighting together! Ah! it must be a fine
sight on a dark night, with a lantern up the main rigging. I never
sailed with any of them chaps, 'cept once--he was a royal Bengal
tiger--ah! I made a good bit of money out of him--he had a difficulty
with the cook--." Here the old salt went into a series of chuckles, and
I was forced to beg him to proceed. Emptying his mouth of the grateful
weed, and wringing the sleet from his weather-beaten beard, he
continued: "You remember Jim Hughes, Mr. Blank, the captain of the old
ship's foretop." I nodded. "Well, I fell in with Jim one day in
Greenock; he was just from Orleans, with a pouch full of cash, for he
had been there in the height of the cholera season, and bagged twenty
dollars a day for driving the dead cart." Here old Harry chuckled again.
"Well, sir, Jim was Scotch, and among his people, and very decent they
were; they treated me all the same for being his shipmate. Well, after a
time a brig was ready for sea; Jim was taken as second mate, and me as
bo'sun. We were bound to Calcutta; off Java Head the first mate kicked
the bucket, was tossed overboard, Jim was promoted, for he had larnin',
and I stepped into his shoes." Another chuckle. "We staid in Calcutta
five months, taking in rice, cotton, indigo, and other products of them
countries, when, just before sailing, there came on board the tiger, a
present for the King of England! A noble beast he was: a big strong iron
front cage was built for him abaft the mainmast, and he never once
stopped licking his white tusks, gaping, walking, and lashing his rope
of a tail, for weeks and weeks after leaving the river. We all began to
take a fancy to him, and I believe he did for us, 'cept the cook, who
was a Nubian nigger, and black all the way down his throat. I never see
such an intense