yarn to a conclusion.

"Ay! more shame to me that I should ever have done such a thing,"
replied he, greatly crestfallen; "but I lay the blame of the whole
consarn, from beginnin' to end, on that--sarpent, though no amount of
sarpents will excuse a man fallin' asleep in his watch, more especially
when he has charge of the deck."

"Well," said I, "you have been pretty well punished for your fault, old
man, at all events. But `all's well that ends well;' and I am heartily
glad that you are so well out of the scrape. And now, I shall insist on
your going to your hammock for the rest of the day, and I'll take care
of the craft. In fact, she will almost steer herself in this weather,
so I shall manage very well indeed. Only don't have any more dreams
which will cause you to jump overboard, please, for I really cannot
afford to lose you."

The poor old fellow was so exhausted that, though he protested against
the proposed arrangement, I could see he was glad enough to avail
himself of it; and after a feeble attempt at remonstrance, he yielded to
my persuasions, and turned in, and was quickly in a sound refreshing
sleep.

Nothing further of importance occurred for several days to break the
monotony of the voyage.

We continued to make good way to the southward, and ten days after
crossing the line we lost the south-east trade-winds, and ran into a
light southerly breeze. As we still had a very fair quantity of water
on board, and indulged in good hopes of getting rain enough, shortly, to
fill our tank up, without the necessity of putting in anywhere, and as
the chances were very great that, as we got farther to the southward, we
should meet with westerly winds, I determined to stand to the southward
and westward, close-hauled, of course, on the port tack, so that
_should_ the wind come from the westward, as we expected, we should be
in a good weatherly position; whilst, if we were disappointed in the
matter of rain, we should have the land close aboard, and could run in
and fill up.

The southerly wind lasted us a couple of days, and then veered gradually
round to about south-west. As this broke us off considerably from our
course, we hove the cutter about, and were then able to lie about south-
and-by-east, a good rap full.

The wind now freshened considerably, and we had it stronger than at any
time since leaving England, except in the gale in the Bay of Biscay, so
that we were reduced to double-reefed mainsai