tail in the air?"

"One lives and larns as long as one lives," observed my father. "Heave
ahead again, old boy."

"Well, as you can't know what you haven't heard anything about, I must
now tell you that these animals be as regular as the bells in a
man-of-war; and whenever they goes down to fed, they always stays
exactly about the time allowed for dinner in a comfortable ship; that
is, seventy minutes exactly. An hour, you see, is the regular time
allowed, and the other ten minutes are by favor of the officer of the
watch, or first lieutenant. We knew that we must wait that time for him,
so we tossed up our oars, and laid by."

"I suppose them sparmacitty chaps have a watch in their pockets," said
my father, smiling.

"It's a true bill, nevertheless, messmate, and they never alter: how and
why they keep to their time, the Lord who gave them the sense to do so
only knows. It is one of the wonders of the deep, which they only who go
on the great waters can bear witness to."

"It beats my comprehension quite entirely," replied my father; "and yet
I have seen animals with a great deal of sense. In one ship, we had a
sheep who would chew tobacco and drink grog. Now go ahead again."

"Well, we had waited about half an hour, when we saw a whiff at the
masthead of the ship; we knew that it was to direct our attention to
some other point, so we looked round the horizon, and perceived that
there was a 'school' of young bulls, about three miles from us. We were