"'It's snoring,' says I; 'somebody snoring.'

"''Eavens!' says Hammond, 'you don't s'pose it's that 'ere Coolie come
back?'

"'No, no!' says I. 'Where's your common sense? The cook snored bass;
this critter's snoring suppraner, and mighty poor suppraner at that.'

"'Well,' says he, ''ere goes to wake 'im hup!' And he commenced to
holler, 'Ahoy!' and 'Belay, there!' down the hatch.

"First thing we heard was a kind of thump like somebody jumping out er
bed. Then footsteps, running like; then up the hatchway comes a sight I
shan't forget if I live to be a hundred.

"'Twas a woman, middling old, with a yeller face all wrinkles, and a
chin and nose like Punch. She was dressed in a gaudy old calico gown,
and had earrings in her ears. She give one look round at the schooner
and the island. Then she see us and let out a whoop like a steam
whistle.

"'Mulligatawny Sacremento merlasess!' she yells. 'Course that wa'n't
what she said, but that's what it sounded like. Then, 'fore Hammond
could stop her, she run for him and give him a rousing big hug. He was
the most surprised man ever you see, stood there like a wooden image. I
commenced to laff, but the next minute the woman come for me and hugged
me, too.

"''Fectionate old gal,' says Hammond, grinning.