owerful; and, although he had once broken
his leg by falling down the hatchway, and had moreover a large scar on
his forehead, received from being thrown to leeward against one of the
guns, he still continued the practice; indeed, it was said that once,
when it was necessary for him to go aloft, he had actually taken the two
first rounds of the Jacob's ladder without withdrawing them, until,
losing his balance, he discovered that it was not quite so easy to go
aloft with his hands in his pockets. In fact, there was no getting up
his hands, even when all hands were turned up. He had another
peculiarity, which was, that he had taken a peculiar fancy to a quack
medicine, called Enouy's Universal Medicine for all Mankind; and Mr
Pottyfar was convinced in his own mind that the label was no libel,
except from the greatness of its truth. In his opinion, it cured
everything, and he spent one of his quarterly bills every year in
bottles of this stuff; which he not only took himself every time he was
unwell, but occasionally when quite well, to prevent his falling sick.
He recommended it to everybody in the ship, and nothing pleased him so
much as to give a dose of it to every one who could be persuaded to take
it.

The officers laughed at him, but it was generally behind his back, for
he became very angry if contradicted upon this one point, upon which he
certainly might be considered to be a little cracked. He was
indefatigable in making proselytes to his creed, and expatiated upon the
virtues of the medicine for an hour running, proving the truth of his
assertion by a pamphlet, which, with his hands, he always carried in his
trousers pocket.

Jack reported himself when he came on board, and Mr Pottyfar, who was
on the quarter-deck at the time, expressed a hope that Mr Easy would
take his share of the duty, now that he had had such a spell on shore;
to which Jack very graciously acceded, and then went down below, where
he found Gascoigne and his new messmates, with most of whom he was
already acquainted.

"Well, Easy," said Gascoigne, "have you had enough of the shore?"

"Quite," replied Jack, recollecting that after the events of the night
before he was just as well on board; "I don't intend to ask for any more
leave."

"Perhaps it's quite as well, for Mr Pottyfar is not very liberal on
that score, I can tell you; there is but one way of getting leave from
him."

"Indeed," replied Jack; "and what is that?"

"You