t when we reach your lodgings,
where we will be quiet and uninterrupted. You got safely back, I hope?

TOM. Yes, Jack, thanks to a kind Providence. I made two more voyages
with the same captain; and I expect to go with him next trip as mate. I
have been able to send my sister a snug little sum to keep her
comfortable; and I have something handsome in the seamen's savings bank,
as I told you before; together with a clear head and a happy heart;
trusting in my God, and loving all who bear his image. Now, Jack, what
do you think of temperance?

JACK. Think of it? Why, Tom, I always _thought_ well of it, though I
can't say that I have latterly _practised_ it much; but I like it now
better than ever. I have ruminated a good deal upon its evils, both at
sea and ashore. Don't you think, Tom, that rum is at the bottom of nine
out of ten of the floggings that take place in the navy?

TOM. Yes, indeed, Jack, I am sure of it. And I think, moreover, that if
it were discarded _entirely_ from the government and merchant service,
insubordination and floggings would be of rare occurrence in the one,
and trouble and mutiny in the other. And there would be fewer vessels
and lives lost in the merchant-service, in the bargain.

JACK. I have often thought, Tom, what a degrading thing that flogging
is. It sinks a man below the level of a brute, both in his own and the
eyes of others. It seems to me that if I had ever been triced up at the
gratings, and had a stroke of the cat, it would have completely crushed
my spirit, if it had not broken my heart outright.

TOM. I think it would have had the same effect on me too, Jack. I am
sure I could not have stood it.

JACK. And, Tom, to show more of the bad effects of liquor, I remember
that I was once in Port-au-Prince, in the island of St. Domingo, during
the sickly season, when a fearful mortality raged among the shipping, so
that every vessel lost some of her men; most of them bringing on the
yellow-fever by their intemperance. There were three ships that were
left without a man; all were swept off from the captain to the cook.

TOM. Awful, Jack, awful. I have also seen many a stout and noble-hearted
tar, in those yellow-fever countries, stowed away under a foot of earth
for the landcrabs to feed upon, just from drinking rum, or the strong
brandy of the country. I'll tell you what it is, Jack, when the coppers
are scalded by rum, physic can't get a hold--it is just like casting
anchor on