erfections on his head."

Soon after this sad accident, when we had taken in the long-boat,
trimmed the sails, and were pursuing our way towards Cape Hatteras, the
captain, with a solemn look, called me to the helm and went into the
cabin, where he undoubtedly found consolation in the embrace of an
intimate but treacherous friend. Indeed, on his return to the deck, a
few minutes afterwards, I had olfactory demonstration that he and the
brandy bottle had been in close communion! Captain Thompson had hardly
spoken to me since we left the wharf in New York. He had now got his
"talking tacks" on board, and was sociable enough.

"Hawser," said he, with a sigh, "this is a serious and sad thing, this
death of poor Pierce. It might be your fate or mine at any time as
easily as his. He was just from Liverpool, having been shipwrecked on
the English coast, and on his way home to Washington, expecting to
see his wife and children in a few days. Poor fellow! This will be a
terrible blow to his family and friends. His fate, so sudden, is enough
to make any man who IS a man, think seriously of his 'better end' of
what may become of him hereafter!" He clinched this remark, which he
delivered with much energy, with an oath that almost made my hair stand
on end, and struck me at the time as being singularly out of place in
that connection.

With another deep-drawn sigh he dismissed the subject, and did not again
allude to it. He spoke of the "embargo act," of various ingenious modes
of evading it, and of the prospect of a war with England; and made some
assertion in relation to proceedings in Congress, which, in a respectful
manner, but to his great astonishment, I ventured to dispute on the
authority of a paragraph I had seen in a New York newspaper a few days
before. The captain, after gravely staring me in the face a moment,
as much as to say, "What do YOU know about newspapers or politics?"
inquired the name of the newspaper I was talking about.

I mentioned the name of the paper. "Well," said he, "I have that
paper, with others, in a bundle in the cabin so that matter can be soon
settled."

Down he went into the cabin, leaving me not a little alarmed at his
conduct. Thinks I to myself, "Can he be offended because a vagabond like
myself has dared to differ with him on a question of fact?"

He soon appeared on deck with a large bundle of newspapers, which he
put into my hands, at the same time taking possession of the tiller.