( 709 ) 

 NIGHTS IN THE GALLEY. EIGHTH YARN. 



" HURRAH ! lads ; hurrah ! sweethearts and wives," shouted Will 

 Gibbons, as he made his way to his customary lounge on the gun 

 tackle ; " it's Saturday night, lads ; now for your yarns, ray bo's. 

 Bob Short and Jack Murray, you are both booked for it to-night, so 

 heave a-head, and let's see what sort of a fist you can make of it." 



This was said by Will Gibbons just as I had lighted my cigar and 

 taken my place in my usual retired niche. The weather had been 

 unusually tempestuous ; it had moderated a little towards the evening, 

 though it still blew very hard, and the ship had close-reefed topsails 

 on her. It is in such weather as this that Jack most enjoys his pipe. 

 Wedging themselves in together they laugh at the roaring of the 

 winds and waves, and numerous are the jokes thrown about from 

 one to another at every lurch; indeed, the harder it blows the 

 merrier is Jack, as if he thought it necessary to salute his old friend, 

 a gale of wind, with a merry welcome. 



" Pish, pish," said Jack Murray, as the ship gave a lea-lurch, and 

 sent two or three fellows rolling to leeward. " Steady, old lady, 

 steady. She's drunk, I'm sure ; we must give her a week on the 

 black list." 



" The devil she is drunk," returned Will Gibbons. " I wonder 

 where the devil she got the liquor. I wish she'd tell me, for I should 

 like very well to drink ' sweethearts and wives/ as it's Saturday 

 night." 



" No wonder she's drunk, lads, for she's rolling in liquor," said 

 the serjeant of marines, who seldom neglected an opportunity of 

 making a pun, and not having his bosom friend, the ship's cook, 

 near him at the time, he condescended to give Jack the benefit of 

 his learning. 



" Liquor, do you call it," said Tom Bennet ; " I'll be d d if I 

 call water, liquor. Good rum's what I call liquor." 



" Ay, you are right, Tom," said Jack Murray. " I was capsized 

 in a boat some time ago, and then I drank water enough for the rest 

 of my life; I don't care though I never taste it again. I shouldn't 

 much mind being drowned in a cask of rum." 



fl Drowned in a cask of rum, be d d !" said said Bob Short. " It 

 would take a d d lot to drown me, for I think they'd get tired of 

 filling before I would of drinking. I wish our old Nibcheese (purser) 

 would try." 



" I dare say you do, lad ; I don't doubt you're an able feller in 

 that way. But come, let's have your yarns, or I shan't have time to 

 spin mine," said Jack Murray. 



" Well, lads, here goes, though there arn't much more to tell. I 

 was just going for to tell you about the schooner what com'd round 

 fort St. Julian ; that's the fort just at the entrance of the Tagus, and 

 a wopper it is too. Well, directly Watts saw she hove her main- 

 topsail to the mast, and got all ready for having a game at bowls, 

 beat to quarters, and bore up, she being to leeward, with the in- 

 M.M.--N0.1. 4T 



