his horses would never get the carriage out of the mud. 'Well then, says
the Bishop, just for this once then.'"

"EGG-BOUND.--Probably an inland word; but it was only from one of the
beach I heard it. He had a pair of--what does the reader think?--Turtle-
doves in his net-loft, looking down so drolly--the delicate
creatures--from their wicker cage on the rough work below, that I
wondered what business they had there. But this truculent Salwager
assured me seriously that he had 'doated on them,' and promised me the
first pair they should hatch. For a long while they had no family, so
long '_neutral_' indeed as to cause grave doubts whether they were a pair
at all. But at last one of them began to show signs of cradle-making,
picking at some hay stuffed into the wicker-bars to encourage them; and I
was told that she was manifestly '_egg-bound_.'"

"NEW MOON.--When first seen, be sure to turn your money over in your
pocket by way of making it grow there; provided always that you see her
face to face, not through a glass (window)--for, in that case, the charm
works the wrong way. 'I see the little dear this evening, and give my
money a twister; there wasn't much, but I roused her about.' Where
'_her_' means the Money, not the Moon. Every one knows of what gender
all that is amiable becomes in the Sailor's eyes: his Ship, of course--the
'Old Dear'--the 'Old Girl'--the 'Old Beauty,' &c. I don't think the Sea
is so familiarly addrest; _she_ is almost too strong-minded, capricious,
and terrible a Virago, and--he is wedded to her for better or worse. Yet
I have heard the Weather (to whose instigation so much of that Sea's ill-
humours are due) spoken of by one coming up the hatchway, 'Let's see how
_she_ look now.' The Moon is, of course, a Woman too; and as with the
German, and, I believe, the ancient Oriental people, 'the blessed Sun
himself a fair hot Wench in a flame-colour'd taffeta,' and so _she_
rises, _she_ sets, and _she_ crosses the Line. So the Timepiece that
measures the hours of day and night. A Friend's Watch going wrong of
late, I advised Regulating; but was gravely answer'd that '_She_ was a
foreigner, and he did not like meddling with _her_.' The same poor
ignorant was looking with me one evening at your fine old church
[Lowestoft] which sadly wanted regulating too: lying all along indeed
like a huge stranded Ship, with one whole side battered open to the ribs,
through which 'the Sea-wind sang shri