A TALE OF A TAK. 515 



" Sentry sentrimental ! O no, your honour; I never stood sentry, 

 or sarved as a marine, in all my life. I am a seaman as can hand, reef, 

 steer, sound, and mend sails ; aye, I even know how to take a me- 

 ridian altitude ; only the numbers and round o's puzzles me a bit in 

 the working of it but all is as one for that : the officer to his 

 quadrant, the boatswain to his call, and the quarter-master to his 

 helm. Good bye, my kind lass ! He who rules aloft will mark 

 down your charity in his log-book he'll reward you when we are all 

 paid off for your goodness to a poor friendless seaman. Good bye !" 



" God bless you, massa !" said the kind-hearted girl, whimpering 

 at Jack's address." " I'm sure you go come back." 



" How are you sure of that, my lass ?" 



" Because you ha' eat cascadoroes," she replied ; alluding to a com- 

 mon superstition of the island, which many believe, that any one who 

 eats of the cascadoroes (mailed fish,) and quits it, will return. 



" Good bye, massa ! I wish you may kill plenty rascal Frenchmen," 

 she added ; for poor Nancy, like most English colonial slaves, had a 

 great hatred to the enemies of Britain. It is a fact that, when Sir 

 Ralph Abercombie made a descent on this island, much of the suc- 

 cess of his enterprise was owing to the good guidance, arid accurate 

 information he obtained from an English negro, named Sharper.* 



The parties left the hut Nancy to her work ; the midshipmen to 

 carry their game to a gig waiting for them ; and Jack to the same 

 boat, to ask one of his future shipmates to help him down to the 

 wharf with his chest. 



Some years after this little event, and when Nancy had nearly for- 

 gotten it, her mistress was sitting in a kind of gallery, over a piazza, 

 when in ran Buonaparte, a little, deformed negro, and what is called, 

 " a pet" of his mistress ; for Creole ladies often select from amongst 

 their young domestics the ugliest they can find for their favourite, 

 and allow it far more liberties than the spoilt son and heir of most 

 European families. This urchin came in, and bawled out : 



" Missis, missis, there is a sailor abottom (below) asking for you." 



"A sailor !" said Mrs. Worthy ; " what can he want with me?" 



( ' Me no know ; but he hab a ribbin round him neck, and a whistle 

 tied to it. I axed him to gi' it to me ; but he no been gi' me." 



" Shew him in." 



The black dwarf " vanished," and ushered in a good-looking sailor, 

 clad in neat, ;white drill trowsers, fringed with blue, a white cotton 

 jacket with blue cuffs and collar, and white shirt, tastefully braided 

 with a kind of blue cord ; a black silk handkerchief was loosely 

 thrown round his neck, and fastened to the edges of the opening of 

 his shirt with blue tape ; a silver call, or whistle, was suspended from 

 his neck by a ribbon ; a narrow-rimmed Panama hat, blue striped 

 stockings, and long quartered pumps, completed his equipment, 

 which set off to advantage a handsome, though rather weather- 

 beaten countenance, and a good figure, and withal accorded with his 

 profession and the climate. The crooked urchin eyed him with some 



* This man is yet alive. Sir R. A. purchased his freedom on account of his 

 services, and he is still allowed a small pension. 



