and farther away from me, like Jack's bean-stalk. At last
I got up just under the top. There are two ways of getting on to it.
One is by going along some ropes, called the futtock shrouds, when one
hangs very much as a fly does crawling along the ceiling. I didn't like
it, being up there all alone in the gloom, for it was very different to
climbing an apple-tree or the oak-tree at the bottom of the lawn, with
our nest on the top of it, where you and I used to sit and smoke cane
cigars, and fancy ourselves Istelson and Collingwood. It wasn't
pleasant going along the futtock shrouds, and still less getting round
them outside into the top, for as the ship rolled it felt as if the mast
was coming right down on the top of me. I waited, however, holding on
as a cat does to a bough when you shake it, till the ship rolled over
the other way, and then up I sprang easily enough, and there I saw
Dickey Snookes and Polly and My Lord all standing by the side of the
captain of the top, and grinning from ear to ear, as if they had some
very good joke in hand. At first I thought that the captain of the top
was a very important person, but I soon found that he was only one of
the seamen who is more active and smarter than the rest, and takes
command of those aloft. "Here comes Midshipman Green," they all
exclaimed, as they saw my head appearing between the topmast shrouds.
When I stood in the top they all insisted on shaking hands with me,
pinching my fingers terribly. "And so you want to see our garden up
here," said Snookes; "you're the greenest thing we've got in it just
now, let me tell you--ha! ha! ha!"

I didn't see anything to laugh at; but I laughed just to keep them
company, thinking the joke was over. However, before I knew what they
were about they caught hold of me, and while one blinded my eyes with a
handkerchief, I found myself lashed up to the rigging with my arms and
legs spread out just like the eagle on a Russian flag. Presently all
was silent. The ship kept rolling backwards and forwards as before, and
I began to feel somewhat queer in the region of my waistband and right
up to my throat, still I wouldn't cry out. Suddenly I found the bandage
whisked off my eyes, and then I could see only one top man standing on
the other side of the top, but my messmates had disappeared. I called
to the man. He touched his hat with the greatest respect. I told him
to cast me loose. "My orders were, sir, not to touch y