his eyes with his hand.
"Yes, it is the _Mermaid_, hurrah!"

"Steady there, sir," said Draper, warningly putting his hand on the
young officer's arm; "we ain't aboard her yet, sir; and if yer don't
keep cool, sir, beggin' yer pardon, sir, it's precious little we'll see
of her this night, or ever ag'en, fur that matter!"

"But, how shall we get alongside?"

"Keep cool, sir. I'll tell 'ee when the time comes," rejoined the
coxswain, in a soothing tone that took off the impertinence of his thus
speaking to his officer. "You leave it to me, sir, and I'll find a way,
if man can do it, to get alongside our old hooker; 'sides them aboard
'll be on the lookout, too, and between the pair on us we ought fur to
manage it comf'ably!"

While `old crusty' was laying down the law in this fashion, though
continuing to mind his steering as smartly as he had done all along, the
cutter was nearing the cruiser every instant, the wind taking her along
in a series of mad leaps and bounds through the water and over the
water, jumping from the top of one wave to that of another, and
sometimes almost in mid-air, until we seemed about to hop on board the
_Mermaid_, all standing like some of those flying-fish I have seen in
the tropics, or else smash ourselves all to pieces against her iron
hull.

But, in the nick of time, when only some twenty or thirty yards off her
sharp ram bow, which would have cut into the cutter as easily as a knife
goes into butter in summer-time, Draper gave a tug to his steering oar;
and, Captain Hankey `making a lee' for us by porting his helm, we glided
into comparatively calm water under the cruiser's starboard counter.

A dozen ropes were thrown to us from men already stationed in the
rigging for the purpose, a dozen hands and more held out to help us up
the side; and almost before any of us well knew where we were, there we
stood, safe and sound on the deck of our old ship again, the cutter
being then hoisted up to the davits.

Draper, who had saved her and us, was the last man to leave her, when
the falls were secured and the gripes put round the boat again.

After this exciting episode, nothing very notable occurred during our
stay on this part of the coast for the next twelve months, beyond my
being made `able seaman.'

I passed for this grade very satisfactorily, I am glad to say; but, it
would not be fair for me to omit mentioning that it was mainly through
my old friend Larrikins that I was able