?"

"The American frigate, of course," said I. "You are right, John,"
exclaimed Bohun with a laugh. "THE CONSTITUTION HAS SUNK THE GUERRIERE.
Brother Jonathan is looking up. He is a worthy descendant of John Bull.
I find you understand the character of your sailors better than I do."

After having imparted this interesting piece of intelligence, and
telling my shipmate and myself to remain by the boat until he should
return, which would be in a few minutes, he again walked nimbly up the
street, and was soon lost to sight.

As in duty bound we remained at the wharf in expectation of the return
of Bohun, but hour after hour passed and he did not return. He was
"enjoying life" among some boon companions, and over a decanter of good
wine, as he afterwards acknowledged, lost for a time all recollection of
the existence not only of the boat, but also of the sloop.

When the company broke up about nine o'clock in the evening, he came
staggering down the wharf, rolled himself into the stern seats of
the boat, and ordered us to shove off and pull towards the sloop. We
represented to him that the night was dark and cloudy, and it would
be next to an impossibility to find the sloop in the broad bay at that
hour; that the attempt would be attended with risk, and consequently it
would be wiser to wait until morning before we left the quay.

Our remonstrances were of no avail. He insisted on going off
immediately. Nothing, he said, would induce him to wait until morning;
he knew exactly where to find the sloop, and could steer the boat
directly alongside.

It was useless to argue with him, and we dared not disobey his orders.
The motto of Jack, like the submissive response of a Mussulman to an
Eastern caliph, is "To hear is to obey." We left the wharf and pulled
briskly out of the harbor. But no sloop was to be seen. We stopped for
a moment to reconnoitre, but Bohun told us to keep pulling; it was all
right; we were going directly towards her. In a few minutes he dropped
the tiller and sank down in the bottom of the boat, where he lay coiled
up like a hedgehog, oblivious to all that was passing around him.

By this time we were broad off in the bay; the lights in the town
glimmered in the distance, the stars shone occasionally through the
broken clouds, the wind was light, and the sea comparatively smooth. On
consultation with my shipmate, we came to the conclusion it was hardly
worth while to pull the boat about in different