ar at you?" said one of the seamen.

"Swear?" said the boy, "it wasn't swearing, it was sulphurous."

"Ah," said the sailor, "it's a bad job he's broken out again. There'll
be no more peace until something serious happens. But perhaps a fair
wind might put him right for a bit. I thought the loss of Jack had
knocked all the sulks out of him, and that he had fairly become
religious."

"What are you gadding about, man?" said Matt, the mate; "how do you
expect anybody to keep religious with the wind N.N.W. and bound north,
with the prospect of being driven back to Burlington Bay or perhaps
Yarmouth Roads? And besides," continued this theological authority,
"sailors are allowed to swear when anything goes wrong, and the old man
is only taking advantage of his rights. You make no mistake; he cannot
read or write--no more can I for that matter--but he knows a thing or
two when it comes to law or religion." Thus spake the loyal,
well-informed Matthew.

After a few days' hard buffeting against a biting head-wind, the vessel
arrived at the port to which she was bound, and after she was moored
and everything made trim, running gear coiled round the belaying pins,
every bight being regular and equal, sails stowed in a cloth, and yards
laid perfectly square, the sailors then proceeded to arrange themselves
in spotless white fustian trousers and blue jerseys adorned in front
with their names or initials worked in red or white worsted. The latter
article of apparel was usually knit by their wives if they were
married, or their intended wives if they were not, and in either case
there was great competition in producing the very best work both of art
and serviceableness. They then packed their clothes in canvas bags and
carried them home on their shoulders. There was considerable emulation
not only in the neatness of the packing and the cleanness of the bags,
but the arrangements for fastening the mouth of the bag took weeks to
fashion into a very pretty piece of sailorising. These things may seem
small and frivolous, unworthy indeed of being referred to as even a
characteristic of the sailor of that locality and of that period. I do
not know anything that came under the lash of such severe criticism as
the sailor's own fashion of dress, and it must not be imagined that it
was confined to the sailors themselves, though they were merciless
enough with each other, but the owners and the public generally took
the keenest interest in th