o. He was a man of about fifty, dark
with exposure to the weather, and so tall that as he came along the
'tween decks he had to bend himself nearly double. The most striking
peculiarity of this individual was, however, that in his boyhood some
evil-minded person had tattooed eyes all over his countenance with such
marvellous skill that it was difficult at a short distance to pick out
his real ones among so many counterfeits. On this strange personage
Master Cyprian determined to exercise his talents for mischief, the more
so as he learned that he was extremely superstitious, and also that he
had left behind him in Portsmouth a strong-minded spouse of whom he
stood in mortal terror. With this object he secured one of the sheep
which were kept on board for the officers' table, and pouring a can of
rumbo down its throat, reduced it to a state of utter intoxication. He
then conveyed it to Anchorstock's berth, and with the assistance of some
other imps, as mischievous as himself, dressed it up in a high nightcap
and gown, and covered it over with the bedclothes.

"When the quartermaster came down from his watch our hero met him at the
door of his berth with an agitated face. 'Mr. Anchorstock,' said he,
'can it be that your wife is on board?' 'Wife!' roared the astonished
sailor. 'Ye white-faced swab, what d'ye mean?' 'If she's not here in the
ship it must be her ghost,' said Cyprian, shaking his head gloomily. 'In
the ship! How in thunder could she get into the ship? Why, master, I
believe as how you're weak in the upper works, d'ye see? to as much as
think o' such a thing. My Poll is moored head and starn, behind the
point at Portsmouth, more'n two thousand mile away.' 'Upon my word,'
said our hero, very earnestly, 'I saw a female look out of your cabin
not five minutes ago.' 'Ay, ay, Mr. Anchorstock,' joined in several of
the conspirators. 'We all saw her--a spanking-looking craft with a
dead-light mounted on one side.' 'Sure enough,' said Anchorstock,
staggered by this accumulation of evidence, 'my Polly's starboard eye
was doused for ever by long Sue Williams of the Hard. But if so be as
she be there I must see her, be she ghost or quick'; with which the
honest sailor, in much perturbation and trembling in every limb, began
to shuffle forward into the cabin, holding the light well in front of
him. It chanced, however, that the unhappy sheep, which was quietly
engaged in sleeping off the effects of its unusual potations, w