oms. Now they are reckoned by tenths; a small
triumph of the decimal system, which may also carry cheer to the
constant hearts of the spelling reformers.

A year later, at like dead of night, I witnessed quite another scene.
We were then off the mouth of the river La Plata, perhaps two hundred
miles from shore. We had been a fortnight at sea, cruising; and I have
always thought that the captain, who was interested in meteorology
and knew the region, kept us out till we should catch a _pampero_. We
caught it, and quite up to sample. I had been on deck at 9 P.M., and
the scene then, save for the force of the wind, was nearly the same as
that I have just described. The same sail, the same cloudless sky and
large moon; but we were going only five knots, with a quiet, rippling
sea, on which the moonbeams danced. Such a scene as Byron doubtless
had in memory:

"The midnight moon is weaving
Her bright chain o'er the deep;
Whose breast is gently heaving
Like an infant's asleep."

Having to turn out at twelve, I soon started below; but before
swinging into my hammock I heard the order to furl the royals and send
the yards on deck. This startled me, for I had not been watching the
barometer, as the captain had; and I remember, by the same token, that
I was then enlarging on the beauties of the outlook above, accompanied
by some disparaging remarks about what steamers could show, whereupon
one of our senior officers, over-hearing, called me in, and told me
quite affably, and in delicate terms, not to make a fool of myself.

But "Linden saw another sight," when I returned to the deck at
midnight; sharp, I am sure, for I held to the somewhat priggish
saying, first devised, I imagine, by some wag tired of waiting for his
successor, "A prompt relief is the pride of a young officer." The
quartermaster, who called me and left the lantern dimly burning, had
conveyed the comforting assurance that it looked very bad on deck, and
the second reef was just taking in the topsails. When I got to my
station, the former watch was still aloft, tying their last
reef-points, from which they soon straggled down, morosely conscious
that they had lost ten minutes of their one watch below, and would
have to be on deck again at four. The moon was still up, but, as it
were, only to emphasize the darkness of the huge cloud masses which
scudded across the sky, with a rapid but steady gait, showing that the
wind meant business. The n