a church, and
stows too much above the water-line. Besides this, she carries no
head-sail, but all the press upon her will be aft, which will jam her into
the wind, and, more than likely, throw her aback. The day will come when
that ship will go down stern foremost."

His auditors listened to this opinion, which Wilder delivered in an
oracular and very decided manner, with that sort of secret faith, and
humble dependence, which the uninstructed are so apt to lend to the
initiated in the mysteries of any imposing profession. Neither of them had
certainly a very clear perception of his meaning; but there were,
apparently, danger and death in his very words Mrs de Lacey felt it
incumbent on her peculiar advantages, however, to manifest how well she
comprehended the subject.

"These are certainly very serious evils!" she exclaimed. "It is quite
unaccountable that my agent should have neglected to mention them. Is
there any other particular quality, sir, that strikes your eye at this
distance, and which you deem alarming?"

"Too many. You observe that her top-gallant masts are fidded abaft; none
of her lofty sails set flying; and then, Madam, she has depended on
bobstays and gammonings for the security of that very important part of a
vessel, the bowsprit."

"Too true! too true!" said Mrs de Lacey, in a sort of professional horror.
"These things had escaped me; but I see them all, now they are mentioned.
Such neglect is highly culpable; more especially to rely on bobstays and
gammonings for the security of a bowsprit! Really, Mrs Wyllys, I can never
consent that my niece should embark in such a vessel."

The calm, penetrating eye of Wyllys had been riveted on the countenance of
Wilder while he was speaking, and she now turned it, with undisturbed
serenity, on the Admiral's widow, to reply.

"Perhaps the danger has been a little magnified," she observed. "Let us
inquire of this other seaman what he thinks on these several points.--And
do you see all these serious dangers to be apprehended, friend, in
trusting ourselves, at this season of the year, in a passage to the
Carolinas, aboard of yonder ship?"

"Lord, Madam!" said the gray-headed mariner, with a chuckling laugh,
"these are new-fashioned faults and difficulties, if they be faults and
difficulties at all! In my time, such matters were never heard of; and I
confess I am so stupid as not to understand the half the young gentleman
has been saying."

"It is some t