84 WATERED RUM AT OTAHEITE. 



was so tired that the smell of rum made me all 

 but fall asleep. I lay down there in the dark 

 waiting for the measure to fill, and in a moment 

 more I was in the Land of Nod. The old man, 

 however, was wide awake and wondered why I 

 was so quiet and so amazingly slow. He shouted 

 to me to see what had happened, and that brought 

 me to my senses. The measure was quite full by 

 that time — oh, yes ! — and nearly a barrel of that 

 villianous grog had run away in the dark. We 

 got the cask on deck and over the side, with a 

 piece of rope attached to it, all ready for Jim to 

 tow on the shore. About midnight Jim came off, 

 about half drunk, with a bag of silver dollars. 

 He was ready to pay a big price, but he was 

 bound to have rum without water in it. We 

 called the old man, and Jim was assured that it 

 was all ready for him to take away. 



But Jim was not to be fooled this way. He 

 wanted to satisfy himself that the rum had not 

 been watered. So we were obliged to hoist it on 

 deck and draw off a glassful. Jim drank part of 

 it, and then asked for a piece of paper, which he 

 first soaked in the rum and then lit from the 

 lamp. The spirits burned brightly, and that con- 

 vinced Jim that the bargain was square ; but he 

 failed to observe that the paper itself remained 



