drawn out to an immoderate length, and accompanied by a sort of half
laugh.

I shall give one instance of our colloquial pastime. His lordship,
after we had each taken up our quarters for the night, on the soft dry
hay, thus began:--

"I say,"--a pause.

"My lord?"

"What would they say in England, at our taking up such quarters?"

"I think, my lord, that as far as regards myself, they would say
nothing; but as far as regards your lordship, they would say it was very
indifferent accommodation for a nobleman."

"Hum!"

This I knew was the signal for a new version. "I was observing, my
lord, that a person of your rank, taking up his quarters in a barn,
would excite suspicion among your friends in England."

"Eh?" says his lordship.

That did not do--either your lordship's head or mine is very thick,
thinks I. I'll try again, though dying to go to sleep. "I say, my
lord, if the people in England knew what a good sailor you are, they
would be surprised at nothing you did; but those who know nothing, would
think it odd that you should be contented with such quarters."

"Ah!" said his lordship, triumphantly.

What further observations he was pleased to make that night I know not,
for I fell fast asleep, and did not awake till the cocks and hens began
to fly down from their roosts, and make a confounded clamour for their
breakfasts, when his lordship jumped up, gave himself a good shake, and
then gave me another of a different sort: it answered the purpose,
however, of restoring me to that reason, of which the cackling of the
poultry had only produced the incipient signs.

"Come, rouse out, you damned lazy chap," said my captain. "Do you mean
to sleep all day? We have got plenty to do."

"Ay, ay, my lord," said I. So up I jumped, and my toilet was completed
in the same time, and by the same operation, as that of a Newfoundland
dog, namely a good shake.

A large party of the ship's company came on shore with the carpenter,
bringing with them every implement useful in cutting down trees and
building log-houses. Such was to be our occupation, in order to house
these poor emigrants. Our men began to clear a patch of land, by
cutting down a number of pine-trees, the almost exclusive natives of the
wood; and having selected a spot for the foundation, we placed four
stems of trees in a parallelogram, having a deep notch in each end,
mutually to fit and embrace each other. When the walls, by this
repeated