THE SETTING UP OF THE FIGURE-HEAD. 
15 
For the performance of this solemnity, I luckily 
possessed a functionary equal to the occasion, in the 
shape of the second cook. Originally a guardsmaji, he 
had beaten his sword into a chisel, and become car¬ 
penter; subsequently, conceiving a passion for the sea, 
he turned his attention to the mysteries of the kitchen, 
and now sails with me in the alternate exercise of 
his two last professions. This individual, thus happily 
combining the chivalry inherent in the profession of 
arms, with the skill of the craftsman and the refine¬ 
ment of the artist—to whose person, moreover, a paper 
cap, white vestments, and the sacrificial knife at his 
girdle, gave something of a sacerdotal character—I 
did not consider unfit to raise the ship’s guardian 
image to its appointed place; and after two hours 
reverential handiwork, I had the satisfaction of seeing 
the well-known lovely face, with its golden hair, and 
smile that might charm all malice from the elements, 
beaming like a happy omen above our bows. 
Shortly afterwards, Fitz came alongside, after a most 
successful foray among the fish-wives. He was sitting 
in the stern-sheets, up to his knees in vegetables, 
with seven elderly hens beside him, and a dissipated 
