of delight on finding her foot once more on the deck of a vessel!

Something of the same feeling governed Biddy, too, for, as Mulford
civilly extended his hand to her also, she exclaimed--"No fear of
me, Mr. Mate--I came from Ireland by wather, and knows all about
ships and brigs, I do. If you could have seen the times we had, and
the saas we crossed, you'd not think it nadeful to say much to the
likes iv me."

Spike had tact enough to understand he would be out of his element
in assisting females along that plank, and he was busy in sending
what he called "the old lady's dunnage" on board, and in discharging
the cabman. As soon as this was done, he sprang into the
main-channels, and thence vid the bulwarks, on deck, ordering the
plank to be hauled aboard. A solitary labourer was paid a quarter to
throw off the fasts from the ring-bolts and posts, and everything
was instantly in motion to cast the brig loose. Work went on as if
the vessel were in haste, and it consequently went on with activity.
Spike bestirred himself, giving his orders in a way to denote he had
been long accustomed to exercise authority on the deck of a vessel,
and knew his calling to its minutiae. The only ostensible difference
between his deportment to-day and on any ordinary occasion, perhaps,
was in the circumstance that he now seemed anxious to get clear of
the wharf, and that in a way which might have attracted notice in
any suspicious and attentive observer. It is possible that such a
one was not very distant, and that Spike was aware of his presence,
for a respectable-looking, well-dressed, middle-aged man had come
down one of the adjacent streets, to a spot within a hundred yards
of the wharf, and stood silently watching the movements of the brig,
as he leaned against a fence. The want of houses in that quarter