f for the loss
of a relation lasts very long, and in a week O'Brien had recovered his
usual spirits, when a vessel brought us the intelligence that a French
squadron had been seen off St Domingo. This put us all on the _qui
vive_. O'Brien was sent for by the admiral, and ordered to hasten his
brig for sea with all possible despatch, as he was to proceed with
despatches to England forthwith. In three days we were reported ready,
received our orders, and at eight o'clock in the evening made sail from
Carlisle Bay. "Well, Mr Swinburne," said I, "how do you like your new
situation?"

"Why, Mr Simple, I like it well enough; and it's not disagreeable to be
an officer, and sit in your own cabin; but still I feel that I should
get on better if I were in another ship. I've been hail-fellow well met
with the ship's company so long, that I can't top the officer over them,
and we can't get the duty done as smart as I could wish: and then at
night I find it very lonely stuck up in my cabin like a parson's clerk,
and nobody to talk to; for the other warrants are particular, and say
that I'm only acting, and may not be confirmed, so they hold aloof. I
don't much like being answerable for all that lot of gunpowder--it's
queer stuff to handle."

"Very true, Swinburne; but still, if there were no responsibility, we
should require no officers. You recollect that you are now provided for
life, and will have half-pay."

"That's what made me bite, Mr Simple. I thought of the old woman, and
how comfortable it would make her in her old age; and so, d'ye see, I
sacrificed myself."

"How long have you been married, Swinburne?"

"Ever since Christmas '94. I wasn't going to be hooked carelessly, so I
nibbled afore I took the bait. Had four years' trial of her first, and,
finding that she had plenty of ballast, I sailed her as my own."

"How do you mean by plenty of ballast?"

"I don't mean, Mr Simple, a broad bow and square hulk. You know very
well that if a vessel has not ballast, she's bottom up in no time. Now,
what keeps a woman stiff under her canvas is her modesty."

"Very true; but it's a rare commodity on the beach."

"And why, Mr Simple? because liquor is more valued. Many a good man has
found it to be his bane; and as for a woman, when once she takes to it,
she's like a ship without a rudder, and goes right before the wind to
the devil. Not that I think a man ought not to take a nor-wester or two,
when he can get them. Rum was