rse with wings!

CYMBELINE.

Morton's low spirits and anxiety, on his return home, arose entirely
from his having ascertained that there was no vessel then fitting out
for the Pacific, except whalemen; and as their route always depends upon
circumstances, and can never be calculated beforehand with any degree of
certainty, he declined several advantageous offers in them. A few days
after the eclaircissement with his father, he learned to his
inexpressible joy, that there was a ship fitting out at Salem for what
was in those days somewhat facetiously denominated a "trading voyage;"
that is, an exclusively smuggling one.

To Salem, then, he hastened, furnished with most ample and satisfactory
letters of introduction and recommendation. He waited upon the owners of
the ship, and was by them referred to Captain Slowly, then on board. At
the very first glimpse of this gentleman, he felt convinced that there
was no chance for a situation on board. Captain Slowly was one of those
mahogany-faced, moderate, slow-moving, slow-speaking, slow-eating
people, that one occasionally meets with in New England, who are the
very reverse of Yankee inquisitiveness, and never answer the most
ordinary question, not even "What o'clock is it?" in less than half an
hour; men who, in short, as they never ask any questions themselves,
think it not worth their while to answer any. We have been several times
horrified by such people, and our fingers have always itched to knock
them down.

"Good morning, Captain Slowly," said our friend Morton.

The captain, hearing himself addressed, went on very deliberately with
the examination of a jib-sheet block that he held in his hand, turning
it over and over, and spinning the sheave round with his finger, much
after the manner of a monkey, with any object he does not
understand--as, for instance, a nut that he cannot crack--and at last
replied,

"Morning."

"I understand," said Morton, almost mad with impatience, "that you are
in want of a first officer; or at least, so says Mr.----."

Captain Slowly, having cast the stops off a coil of running rigging, the
main-top-gallant clewline, that lay at his feet, and fathomed it from
one end to the other, examining all the chafed places with great
attention, answered with, "Was you wanting to go out in the ship?"

"Yes sir," said Morton, who saw what kind of a dead-and-alive animal he
had to deal with, and was de