NIGHTS IN THE GALLEY. 627 



" Oh, I say, Jack, give us that yarn you were spinning in the 

 fore-top, last night, when it struck eight bells." 



" Well, what was it about ? Oh, I remember, the Herraiony 

 (Hermione), wasn't it ? Well, where did I leave off?" 



" Oh, never mind, try back ; nothing like heaving a ship off by 

 the stern." 



" Well, here goes. e My wife's gone on shore ; coil away the 

 hawser.' " 



Jack Murray was captain of the fore-top, and could spin a good 

 yarn. He had begun one the night before, but eight bells struck, 

 and down he tumbled to his hammock, promising to finish it the first 

 opportunity. His top-mates now claimed the promiss, and so he 

 settled himself alongside old Will Gibbon, stuck his short pipe, 

 commonly called a dhudeen, into one corner of his mouth, and 

 commenced : 



" Well, lads, you know it was my father as told it me ; he had a 

 brother aboard the Hermiony at the time o' the mutiny. He was one 

 o* them as was tried by a court-martial and hung for it, poor feller ! 

 The night before, as it might be to-night, he was going to be hung 

 to-morrow, he wrote a letter to my father such a fine letter it was ! 

 I think I've got it here : no, I haven't ; but that's neither here nor 

 there, but I knows it almost by heart. Well, I'll tell you what my 

 father told me. Captain Pigott was the skipper, and a taut hand he 

 was ; there was no pleasing him, do what you would up early, 

 down late ; he was the man to bring a feller to his bearings ; he used 

 to say he never slept well without he had bowled a dozen fellers off 

 with five dozen ; and, by George, he seldom slept badly, for he used 

 to do that every day of his life. The Hermiony was the smartest 

 ship at sea ; nothing could beat her at reefing, furling, shifting masts, 

 yards, anything, she never went to leeward. What do you think of 

 furling every stitch o' canvas in fifty seconds ? Wasn't that sharp 

 work for the eyes eh, lads ?" 



" I've seen that done, often," said old Will, " when I was in 

 Indee ; there was the Boadishier (Boadicea) did it in forty " 



" Holloa, belay all that ; by gum you spin a yarn as long as the 

 main-top bowline ; but it won't do ; I've doubled the Cape as well 

 as you, lad," returned Jack Murray. 



" Well, well, belay your jaw j go on, Jack, go on," said half-a- 

 dozen top-men, at once. 



" Well, all this would not do for the skipper ; he called them all 

 lazy blackguards, and swore he'd give five dozen to the last man off 

 the topsail. Now this wasn't fair, 'cause, you know, it stands to 

 reason somebody must be last : but he didn't care for that. He 

 turned the hands up the next niglrt at sunset to reef topsails, and 

 ordered the carpenters to rig the gratings,* and the Joeysf to be 

 drawn up abaft. Well, there it was all right for flogging. He 

 always carried on himself; for howsumdever, he was tyrant, but a 

 smart sailor j he knew the main-brace from the binnacle, I can tell 

 you, already. So it was hand along the weather-braces haul taut- 



* Preparations for flogging. t Marines. 



