We lay in this woful state for the better part of a year, when, growing
impatient, the crew deputed me to look up the captain and see if
something could not be done about it. I found him in a remote cobwebby
corner between-decks, with a book in his hand. On one side of him, the
cords newly cut, were three bales of "Ouida"; on the other a mountain of
Miss M.E. Braddon towered above his head. He had finished "Ouida" and
was tackling Miss Braddon. He was greatly changed.

"Captain Abersouth," said I, rising on tiptoe so as to overlook the
lower slopes of Mrs. Braddon, "will you be good enough to tell me how
long this thing is going on?"

"Can't say, I'm sure," he replied without pulling his eyes off the page.
"They'll probably make up about the middle of the book. In the meantime
old Pondronummus will foul his top-hamper and take out his papers for
Looney Haven, and young Monshure de Boojower will come in for a million.
Then if the proud and fair Angelica doesn't luff and come into his wake
after pizening that sea lawyer, Thundermuzzle, I don't know nothing
about the deeps and shallers of the human heart."

I could not take so hopeful a view of the situation, and went on deck,
feeling very much discouraged. I had no sooner got my head out than I
observed that the ship was moving at a high rate of speed!

We had on board a bullock and a Dutchman. The bullock was chained by the
neck to the foremast, but the Dutchman was allowed a good deal of
liberty, being shut up at night only. There was bad blood between the
two--a feud of long standing, having its origin in the Dutchman's
appetite for milk and the bullock's sense of personal dignity; the
particular cause of offense it would be tedious to relate. Taking