ings but ze terrapin
tortoise and ze lizards on ze rocks! I vas here one, doo, dree zummers
ago, mit a drading schgooner vrom Guayaquil after a cargo of ze orchilla
weed, dat fetch goot price in Equador. I vas sure it vas Abingdon
Islant vrom dat tall big peak of montane on ze port side dat vas cal't
Cape Chalmers; vor, we vas anchor't to looard ven we vas hunting for ze
weed orchilla and ze toordles."

"Oh, indeed," said the skipper. "I'll look at the chart an' take the
sun at noon, so to kalkerlate our bearin's; but I guess ye're not fur
out, ez I telled thet dodrotted fule of a Flinders we'd be safe ter run
foul o' the cussed Galapagos if we kept thet course ez he steered!
Howsomedever, let's do sunthin', an' not stan' idling hyar no longer.
Forrad, thaar, ye lot o' star-gazin', fly-catchin' lazy lubbers! make it
eight bells an' call the watch to sluice down decks! Ye doan't think,
me jokers, I'm goin' to let ye strike work an' break articles 'cause the
shep's aground, do ye? Not if I knows it, by thunder! Stir yer stumps
an' look smart, or some o' ye'll know the reason why!"

This made Tom Bullover and the other hands bustle about on the
fo'c's'le, although buckets had to be lowered over the side aft to wash
down the decks with, so as to clear away all the volcano dust that was
still lying about, for the head-pump could not be used as usual on
account of the forepart of the ship being high and dry.

Meanwhile, Hiram and I busied ourselves in the galley, blowing up the
fire and getting the coffee ready for breakfast, so that ere long things
began to look better.

The sun by this time was more than half-way up overhead, but as a steady
south-west breeze was blowing in still from the sea right across our
quarter, for the ship was lying on the sand with her bowsprit pointing
north by west, the temperature was by no means so hot as might have been
expected from the fact of our being so close to the Equator; and so,
after our morning meal was over, the skipper had all hands piped to
lighten the vessel, in order to prepare her for our going afloat again.

Captain Snaggs took the precaution, however, of getting out anchors
ahead and astern, so as to secure her in her present position, so that
no sudden shift of wind or rise of the tide might jeopardise matters
before everything was ready for heaving her off, the sheet and starboard
bower being laid out in seven-fathom water, some fifty yards aft of the
rudder pos