the
foretop-sail." He laughed. "Here, take the stockings, and pay me when you
please." This I did not do until I had given him a little note promising
to pay him when we returned from our cruise.

We sailed the following morning, to cruise off the windward passages,
where we fell in with two American sloops of war, cruising for an
appetite. We were now tolerably well manned. Yellow fever and scurvy had
taken their departure, and the only evil which remained with us was the
blue devils, in consequence of the monotony so prevalent in a long cruise.
We boarded several American vessels, and from one of them we procured some
long, lanky turkeys. They stood so high that they appeared on stilts; they
were all feather and bone, and Jonathan asked four dollars apiece for
them, but we got him down to two by taking nine, which was all he had. I
asked him if he had any dollar biscuits. "No," said he; "but some of the
men have a pretty considerable quantity of notions." Here he called to one
of them, and said, "Nathan, I guess you bought some notions at Baltimore;
bring them up, and let the officer see them." Nathan was soon down the
hatchway, and as quickly up again with his venture, or notions. They
consisted of two pounds of infamous Yankee tea, three pounds of tobacco
made into a roll, a jar of salt butter, a six-pound ham, and a bag of
hickory nuts. The tea and ham I bought, and one of the boat's crew had the
tobacco. The first proved too bad for even a midshipman's palate; and the
ham, when the cover and sawdust were taken away, was animated by
nondescripts, and only half of it eatable. I was tried by a court of
inquiry by my messmates for want of discernment, and found guilty; and the
Yankee who had cheated us was sentenced to be hanged, but as he was out of
sight, the penalty was not carried into execution. We once more anchored
at the mole, after having reconnoitred Porto Rico and part of Cuba,
without any addition to our riches.

On the fifth evening of our arrival we heard the drums at the town beating
to arms. We manned and armed three of our boats, and sent them on shore to
inquire the cause of the alarm. The soldiers were forming to march, when
one of our mids exclaimed: "Look what a vast number of large fire-flies
there are in the bushes over the town!" "Are you sure those lights are
fire-flies?" said a captain of one of the companies. "Yes," said the mid;
"I'll convince you in a jiffy." Away he flew into the bushes,