rame was no match, he soon gave token of decay. This boy was a
great favorite with everybody; the sailors smiled whenever he
passed, as they would have done to a child; the officers patted
him, and coddled him up with all sorts of good things; and his
messmates, in a style which did not altogether please him, but which
he could not well resist, as it was meant most kindly, nicknamed
him, "Dolly." Poor fellow! he was long remembered afterwards. I
forget what his particular complaint was, but he gradually sank, and
at last went out just as a taper might have done, exposed to such
gusts of wind as blew in that tempestuous region. He died in the
morning, but it was not until the evening that he was prepared for a
seaman's grave.

"'I remember in the course of the day, going to the side of the
boy's hammock; and, on laying my hand upon his breast, being
astonished to find it still warm; so much so, that I almost imagined
I could feel the heart beat. This, of course, was a vain fancy; but
I was greatly attached to my little companion, being then not much
taller myself, and I was soothed and gratified, in a childish way,
by discovering that my friend, though many hours dead, had not yet
acquired the usual revolting chilliness.

"'Something occurred during the day to prevent the funeral taking
place at the usual hour; and the ceremony was deferred until long
after sunset. The evening was extremely dark, and it was blowing a
treble-reefed topsail breeze. We had just sent down the top-gallant
yards, and had made all snug for a boisterous winter's night. As it
became necessary to have lights to see what was done, several signal
lanterns were placed on the break of the quarter-deck, and others
along the hammock railing on the lee-gangway. The whole ship's
company and officers were assembled; some on the booms, others in
the boats; while the main-rigging was crowded half-way up to the
cat-harpings. Overhead the mainsail, illuminated as high as the yard
by the lamps, was bulging forwards under the gale, which was rising
every minute, and straining so violently at the main-sheet, that
there was some doubt whether it might not be necessary to interrupt
the funeral in order to take sail off the ship. The lower-deck ports
lay completely under water, and several times the muzzles of the
main-deck guns were plunged into the sea; so that the ends of the
grating on which the remains of poor "Dolly" were laid, once or
twice nearly touched