and Snowball stood, halliards in hand, ready to hoist up,
an exclamation came from little William, that caused both of them to
suspend proceedings.

The boy stood gazing out upon the ocean,--his eyes fixed upon some
object that had caused him to cry out. Lalee was by his side also,
regarding the same object.

"What is it, Will'm?" eagerly inquired the sailor, hoping the lad might
have made out a sail.

William had himself entertained this hope. A whitish disk over the
horizon had come under his eye; which for a while looked like spread
canvas, but soon disappeared,--as if it had suddenly dissolved into air.

William was ashamed of having uttered the exclamation,--as being guilty
of causing a "false alarm." He was about to explain himself, when the
white object once more rose up against the sky,--now observed by all.

"That's what I saw," said the alarmist, confessing himself mistaken.

"If ye took it for a sail, lad," rejoined the sailor, "you war mistaken.
It be only the spoutin' o' a sparmacety."

"There's more than one," rejoined William, desirous of escaping from his
dilemma. "See, yonder's half a dozen of them!"

"Theer ye be right, lad,--though not in sayin' there's half a dozen.
More like there be half a hundred o' 'em. There's sure to be that
number, whar you see six a-blowin' at the same time. There be a
`school' o' them, I be bound,--maybe a `body.'"

"Golly!" cried Snowball, after regarding the whales for a moment, "dey
am a-comin' dis way!"

"They be," muttered the old whalesman, in a tone that did not show much
satisfaction at the discovery. "They're coming right down upon us. I
don't like it a bit. They're on a `passage,'--that I can see; an' it be
dangerous to get in their way when they're goin' so,--especially aboard
a craft sich as this un'."

Of course the setting of the sail was adjourned at this announcement; as
it would have been, whether there had been danger or not. A school of
whales, either upon their "passage" or when "gambolling," is a spectacle
so rare, at the same time so exciting, as not to be looked upon without
interest; and the voyager must be engrossed in some very serious
occupation who can permit it to pass without giving it his attention.

Nothing can be more magnificent than the movements of these vast
leviathans, as they cleave their track through the blue liquid
element,--now sending aloft their plume-like spouts of white vapour,--
now flinging their broad