I
have been speaking of; indeed, so indistinct is my recollection of the
earlier events I have described, that had it not been for Dick, I could
have known very little about them. Dick soon recovered, and I was
delighted when, on having made my way forward, I found myself again with
him. He scanned me all over, as if to ascertain whether any harm had
come to me during our long separation. I assured him that I was all
right, and was loud in my praise of Miss Kitty, though I was less
complimentary to Mrs Podgers and the captain.

"They are not nice people," I observed; "drink nasty rum, quarrel and
fight, and then kiss and hug; then quarrel and fight again."

My description was a correct one. Mrs Podgers, indeed, had come to sea
sorely against her husband's will, simply because she would, and had
brought Miss Kitty, who had just come from school, with her--to save the
expense of keeping her at home. Miss Kitty was evidently very unhappy,
and did not at all like the life she had to lead. She was as refined in
appearance, manners, and feelings, as Mrs Podgers was coarse in all
three; but the captain, though fat and addicted to rum-drinking in large
quantities, and somewhat sulky in his cups, was not nearly as bad as his
wife. He was, moreover, greatly tried, both in the cabin by her, and on
deck by his unruly crew: the latter was, indeed, about as rough a set of
fellows as ever collected on board ship. The first and second mates
were not unfitted, by the ready use they made of their fists, to manage
them, but the third mate, Edward Falconer, who had brought Dick and me
on board, differed from them greatly. He was refined in his appearance
and manners, and gentle in his behaviour, though there was, at times, a
look in his eye which showed that he was not lacking in spirit and
daring.

The _Dolphin_, besides being bound on a whaling cruise, was a "Letter of
Marque," by which she had the right, without being considered a pirate,
to take and plunder any of the enemy's ships she might fall in with; but
when Mrs Podgers, with Miss Kitty, came on board, the crew, suspecting
that the captain intended to confine himself to the more pacific of the
two occupations, were very indignant, and a mutinous and discontented
spirit arose among them.

The captain never from the first took to me.

"I am bothered enough with women, and don't want a brat in the cabin
into the bargain," he growled out one day when angry with his wif