he land was made. After this knotty
question was settled an incident almost incredible in its awful
gruesomeness took place. Ralph became smitten by a revengeful mania. He
went below, took his deceased commander's clothes off, put his body on
the table and commenced to lash at it with a piece of rope, exclaiming
at every stroke, "You thrashed me, you tiger, when you were living, and
I'll thrash you now that you're dead." The mate happened to go into the
cabin while this performance was going on, and was stricken with chill
horror.

"My God, Ralph, what are you doing?" the mate shouted.

"Don't you see what I'm doing, you d----n fool?" said Ralph, "I'll
teach the villain to lash me for doing nothing!"

"But," said Munroe, "his body will be marked, and we will be had up for
murder!"

"There is no fear of that. A corpse never gets marked by beating it."

This assurance relieved Mr Munroe so much that he covered his strange
companion with profuse compliments on his knowledge of the inanimate
human body, and nicknamed him 'Ralph-ower-mony.' After this
extraordinary being had finished his gruesome revenge on the dead body
of his master, it was placed in a hastily-constructed deal casement,
and put on top of the longboat, and then covered over with the Union
Jack and an awning, so that it might be kept cool.

There is no class of Englishmen who regard the national flag with such
reverence as the sailor; to him it is a divinity, used as an emblem of
glory, or sorrow, as the case may be. He disdains making the noisy,
vulgar use of it that is sometimes practised at meetings by unctuous,
ill-read politicians, whose abnormal egotism, impudence and ignorance
cause them to boast of a devotion for the flag equalled by no one else.
The sailor, on the other hand, speaks of it as a thing too sacred to
act circus games with. If his shipmate dies at sea, he is sewn up in
canvas and covered over with the Union Jack; a heavy weight is placed
at his feet, and, with heads bowed low, they silently commit his
remains to the deep. If a sailor dies in port, the flag is used to
cover the coffin as a solemn token of having died while serving under
its beneficent protection. Think of the beautiful sentiment that
governs the sailor's ideal of using it, and then, if you can, think of
the blatant political person and the use he puts it to! How it reminds
you of Petticoat Lane, and makes you pray that England may be delivered
from such disgusting