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slowly, that it might almost be called standing 

 still. On the other hand, the weather is now 

 perfectly delicious ; the ship makes but little way, 

 but she moves steadily: the sun is brilliant; the 

 sky cloudless ; the sea calm, and so smooth that 

 it looks like one extended sheet of blue glass; 

 an awning is stretched over the deck; although 

 there is not wind enough to fill the canvass, there 

 is sufficient to keep the air cool, and thus, even 

 during the day, the weather is very pleasant ; but 

 the nights are quite heavenly, and so bright, that 

 at ten o'clock yesterday evening little Jem Par- 

 sons (the cabin boy), and his friend the black ter- 

 rier, came on deck, and sat themselves down on a 

 gun-carriage, to read by the light of the moon. I 

 looked at the boy's book, (the terrier, I suppose, 

 read over the other's shoulder,) and found that it 

 was " The Sorrows of Werter." I asked who had 

 lent him such a book, and whether it amused him? 

 He said that it had been made a present to him, 

 and so he had read it almost through, for he had 

 got to Werter's dying ; though, to be sure, he did 

 not understand it all, nor like very much what he 

 understood ; for he thought the man a great fool 

 for killing himself for love. I told him I thought 

 every man a great fool who killed himself for love 

 or for any thing else : but had he no books but 

 ""The Sorrows of Werter?" — Oh dear, yes, he 

 said, he had a great many more; he had got " The 

 Adventures of a Louse," which was a very curi- 



