ed it for the sake of anyone
else, but directly the child was brought on board he issued an order
that the whole of the milk should be reserved for her use. There was
something strange about this, for immediately the goat gave twice the
quantity that had for some time appeared on the Captain's table. It
was, to be sure, whispered that some of the young gentlemen were fond of
milk for their tea, and from that time forward not a drop was ever seen
in their berth. Before that time, one or two of them used to boast that
they had the art of manufacturing milk out of pipeclay, whereby they
accounted for the rare fluid which occasionally appeared on the
mess-table.

I remember clearly the funeral of the poor nurse. As the Captain and
the First-Lieutenant had considered it important that her clothes should
be preserved, in the hopes of assisting in discovering to whom the
Little Lady belonged, Mrs King had dressed the body in one of her old
petticoats. It was then sewn up in a piece of canvas, with a shot at
the feet, and placed on a grating near an open port. The Captain, who
had somewhat obfuscated theological views, could not decide whether he
was bound to read the funeral service over the poor woman.

"Supposing she is a heathen--and I never heard of these black people
being Christians--I shouldn't think it was much in their way, eh,
Schank? Would it not be something like sacrilege to bury her in a
Christian fashion?" he asked of the First-Lieutenant.

"As to that," observed Mr Schank, "I suspect we are apt to perform the
ceremony over a good many who have no more claim to be considered true
Christians than she possibly had."

"Well, I suppose it can't do much harm, eh, Schank?" observed the
Captain, after a moment's reflection, and the Little Lady's nurse was
buried, according to the notion of the crew, in a decent Christian
manner; they piously believing that, however she might have lived, she
would now at all events have a fair chance of getting a safe passage to
heaven. We were during this time standing to the southward, and having
rounded the south of Ceylon, we touched at Point de Galle, and
afterwards at Colombo, proceeding on to Bombay. Greatly to the
disappointment of the ship's company, the "Boreas" was here found to be
in such good condition, that, instead of going home, she was ordered
back to the China Seas. Passing through the Straits of Malacca, we
returned to Macao.

We were here joined by an