olly, Hiram, nor ain't I'se funky ob him, neider! My fader in Jamaiky
he one big fetish man; an' I not 'fraid ob Captain Snaggs, or de debbel,
or any odder man; an' I wants ter go ter 'Frisco, too, an' dat's de
reason I'se hyar."

Presently, when I had the chance of speaking to him, I told him of the
captain's suspicions; but he only laughed when I begged him to tell me
if he had put anything into the cabin dinner, and what it was.

"Yah-yah, sonny! I'se tole yer so, I'se tole yer so--hoo-hoo!" he
cried, doubling himself up and yelling with mirth. "I'se tole yer,
`jess wait till bymeby, an' yer see one big joke;' but, chile, yer'd
better not know nuffin 'bout it; fo', den yer ken tell de troot if de
cap'n ax, an' say yer knows nuffin."

This was no doubt sound advice; still, it did not satisfy my curiosity,
and I was rather indignant at his not confiding in me. Of course, I was
not going to tell the captain or anybody, for I wasn't a sneak, at all
events, if I was only a cabin boy!

Vexed at his not confiding in me, I turned to look over the side at the
scene around.

The sun had not long set, and a bit of the afterglow yet lingered over
the western horizon, warming up that portion of the sky; but, above,
although the leaden clouds had all disappeared, being driven away to
leeward long since, the shades of evening were gradually creeping up,
and the sea and everything was covered with a purple haze, save where
the racing waves rushed over each other in a mass of seething foam, that
scintillated out coruscations of light--little oases of brightness in
the desert of the deep.

As for the ship, she was a beauty, and sailed on, behaving like a
clipper, rising and falling with a gentle rocking motion, when she met
and passed the rollers that she overtook in her course, as they raced
before her, trying to outvie her speed, and tossing up a shower of spray
occasionally over her weather bow, which the fading gleams of crimson
and gold of the sunset touched up and turned into so many little
rainbows, that hovered over the water in front for a moment and then
disappeared, as the vessel crushed them out of life with her cutwater.

The wind still whistled through the rigging, but, now, it was more like
the musical sound of an Aeolian harp, whose chords vibrated rhythmically
with the breeze; while the big sails bellying out from the yards above
emitted a gentle hum, as that of bees in the distance, from the rushing
air t