nd fish, and
many other necessary articles. We none of us were much addicted to
lying long in bed; but when we did turn in, we slept sounder than, I am
sure, any tops ever did. We might generally have all snored as loud as
a dozen bears growling away in concert, without in the slightest degree
disturbing each other. One night, however, a piece of salt tongue had
stuck somewhere on its downward passages or Mrs Ragget had given me too
strong a bowl of green tea, as a special mark of her favour, or from
some other unaccountable cause, I could not for some time get to sleep.
I found out that Sam Short did snore, and most lustily and variously
too, with notes resembling what one might fancy a broken-winded bagpipe
with a bad influenza would give forth more than any other sounds. My
other friends were not much behind him in the loudness of their snores,
though rather less varied and musical. At length, in spite of the
delicious concert, I did manage, by dint of counting and repeating my
own name over and over again, and other similar devices, to get into a
sort of dose. Still, though I was asleep, I could hear all the noises
as clearly as before, only I forgot where I was, and a variety of
strange and ever-changing notions came into my head.

I thought that I was at sea, when a violent storm arose, and that a huge
whale got hold of the vessel, and towed her on at a terrific rate,
spouting away and roaring most furiously. Suddenly there was a crash,
and I found that the whale had dragged us against a rock, and ran itself
on shore. There it lay floundering away, till suddenly it gave a
curious kick with its tail, and sprung back again right over our heads
into deep water. I never saw a whale, or indeed any creature for that
matter, give such a leap. I had very serious doubts, however, whether
it was a real whale after all. As it went off skimming over the sea, it
looked back with such a wicked expression in its little twinkling eye,
as much as to say, "There, I've done for you. I hope you may like it;"
at the same time snorting and blowing louder than ever, in a way most
unusual, at all events for whales, which, except when in a flurry, are
generally quiet, well-behaved creatures.

The boiling sea soon knocked the vessel to pieces, and the crash of the
wreck made me start up to swim for my life. There really had been a
crash, though not so loud as I supposed, for it had not awakened the
rest of the sleepers. The