signalman reports it ALIVE!"

"Alive?--a spar! What do you mean? Something alive ON it, eh?"

"No, sir; alive itself."

"How can that be? Hail him again. Ask him what it is."

The officer went out, and hailed the signalman at the mast-head. "What
is it?"

"Sea-sarpint, I think."

This hail reached the captain's ears faintly. However, he waited quietly
till the officer came in and reported it; then he burst out, "Absurd!
there is no such creature in the universe. What do you say, Dr.
Staines?--It is in your department."

"The universe in my department, captain?"

"Haw! haw! haw!" went Fitzroy and two more.

"No, you rogue, the serpent."

Dr. Staines, thus appealed to, asked the captain if he had ever seen
small snakes out at sea.

"Why, of course. Sailed through a mile of them once, in the
archipelago."