TURTLES AND PORPOISES 57 



swimming about the ship one night and it shone 

 hke a hving incandescence — a silent, ghost-like 

 shape slowly gliding under the brig and out 

 again. 



The idle night watches in the tropics were 

 great times for story telling. The deep-water 

 sailors were especially fond of this way of pass- 

 ing the time. While the green hands were en- 

 gaging in desultory talk and wishing for the bell 

 to strike to go back to their bunks, these deep- 

 water fellows would be pacing up and down or 

 sitting on deck against the bulwarks, smoking 

 their pipes and spinning yarns to each other. 

 The stories as a rule were interminable and were 

 full of " Then he says " and " Then the other fel- 

 low says." It was a poor story that did not last 

 out a four-hour watch and many of them were 

 regular " continued in our next " serials, being 

 cut short at the end of one watch to be resumed 

 in the next. 



No matter how long-winded or prosy the nara- 

 tive, the story teller was always sure of an au- 

 dience whose attention never flagged for an in- 

 stant. The boyish delight of these full-grown 



