it."

The first-lieutenant then narrated, with a considerable degree of
humour, the following story:--

"A lad, who had been some years at sea, returned home to his aged
grandmother, who was naturally curious to hear his adventures.--`Now,
Jack,' said the old woman, `tell me all you've seen, and tell me the
most wonderful things first.'

"`Well, granny, when we were in the Red Sea, we anchored close to the
shore, and when we hove the anchor up, there was a chariot wheel hanging
to it.'

"`Oh! Jack, Pharaoh and his host were drowned in the Red Sea, you know;
that proves the Bible is all true. Well, Jack, and what else did you
see?'

"`Why, granny, when I was in the West Indies, I saw whole mountains of
sugar, and the rivers between them were all rum.'

"`True, true,' said the old woman, smacking her lips; `we get all the
sugar and rum from there, you know. Pray, Jack, did you ever see a
mermaid?'

"`Why, no, mother, but I've seen a merman.'

"`Well, let's hear, Jack.'

"`Why, mother, when we anchored to the northward of St. Kitt's one
Sunday morning, a voice called us from alongside, and when we looked
over, there was a merman just come to the top of the water; he stroked
down his hair, and touched it, as we do our hats, to the captain, and
told him that he would feel much obliged to him to trip his anchor, as
it had been let go just before the door of his house below, which they
could not open in consequence, and his wife would be too late to go to
church.'

"`God bless me!' says the old woman; `why, they're Christians, I do
declare--And now, Jack, tell me something more.'

"Jack, whose invention was probably exhausted, then told her that he had
seen hundreds of fish flying in the air.

"`Come, come, Jack,' said the old woman, `now you're _bamming_ me--don't
attempt to put such stories off on your old granny. The chariot wheel I
can believe, because it is likely; the sugar and rum I know to be true;
and also the merman, for I have seen pictures of them. But as for fish
flying in the air, Jack--that's a lie.'"

"Excellent," said Captain M---. "Then the only part that was true she
rejected, believing all the monstrous lies that he had coined."

"If any unknown individual," observed Macallan, "and not Captain Cook,
had reported the existence of such an animal as the ornithorhynchus, or
duck-billed platypus, without bringing home the specimen as a proof; who
would have credited his statement?"

"