eption to the rule, for they appeared absolutely to
number thousands; and what should they do when they neared us but settle
down in their thousands on the masts and rigging of the brig _Granite_.
They were tired, poor things, no doubt, with long flying; and I have
been told that it is a common custom for them to rest themselves on the
riggings of ships. But there were so many of them this time that the
very deck was covered with them, and vast numbers more fluttered below,
into the forecastle and the captain's cabin. The skipper ordered the
hatches to be battened down, and all was made snug for the night. In
the morning the birds on the deck and the rigging were gone, but we had
still hundreds of swallows in the hold and in the cabin, and the noise
the poor creatures made to be let out was most pitiable--indeed, it was
simply heartrending. It was like the cry of children. It sounded like,
"For God's sake, let us go free!" Captain Marbles--I have said so
before--was a hard man, but he could not stand the agonised twittering
of the wretched little birds; and as he ordered me to have the hatches
opened, I noticed that there were two great tears coursing down his
stern, weather-beaten cheeks. He had, for the first time in his life,
perhaps, become acquainted with a certain blessed thing called PITY.
Nor did we fail to notice afterward that he was not half so hard on the
boys we had aboard. Perhaps he remembered the cry of the swallows.

That's my yarn. There's nothing very grand about it; but, at least,
it's true. As true, I mean, as old sailors' yarns usually are.

"Gone!" cried the doctor, as the Dutchman, a minute before solid in
appearance, suddenly collapsed into air and moisture, which directly
became ice. "If I hadn't been so polite I might have stopped him. I
suppose the effort of telling their histories exhausts them."

"Well, sir, it's jolly interesting!" said Bostock.

"Yes, my man," said the doctor; "but there's no science in it. What is
there in his talk about how he came here, or for me to report to the
learned societies?"

"Can't say, I'm sure, sir," I said; "only, the discoveries."

"Yes, that will do, Captain. But come, let's find another?"

We all set to eagerly, for the men now thoroughly enjoyed the task. The
stories we heard enlivened the tedium, and the men, far from being
afraid now, went heartily into the search.

"Shouldn't wonder if we found a nigger friz-up here, mates," sai