ch
alternate second of time. It was, in fact, the captain's pipe, a
luxury in which that worthy man indulged morning, noon, and night. He
usually rested the bowl of the pipe on and a little over the edge of
his hammock, and, lying on his back, passed the mouthpiece over the
blankets into the corner of his mouth, where four of his teeth seemed
to have agreed to form an exactly round hole suited to receive it. At
each draw the fire in the bowl glowed so that the captain's nose was
faintly illuminated; in the intervals the nose disappeared.

The breaking or letting fall of this pipe was a common incident in
the captain's nocturnal history, but he had got used to it, from long
habit, and regarded the event each time it occurred with the
philosophic composure of one who sees and makes up his mind to endure
an inevitable and unavoidable evil.

"Ruby," said the captain, after the candle was extinguished.

"Well, uncle?"

"I've bin thinkin', lad,----"

Here the captain drew a few whiffs to prevent the pipe from going
out, in which operation he evidently forgot himself and went on
thinking, for he said nothing more.

"Well, uncle, what have you been thinking?"

"Eh! ah, yes, I've bin thinkin', lad (puff), that you'll have to
(puff)--there's somethin' wrong with the pipe to-night, it don't draw
well (puff)--you'll have to do somethin' or other in the town, for it
won't do to leave the old woman, lad, in her delicate state o'
health. Had she turned in when you left the kitchen?"

"Oh yes, an hour or more."

"An' Blue Eyes,

'The tender bit flower that waves in the breeze,
And scatters its fragrance all over the seas'--

has she turned in too?"

"She was just going to when I left," replied Ruby; "but what has that
to do with the question?"

"I didn't say as it had anything to do with it, lad. Moreover, there
ain't no question between us as I knows on (puff); but what have you
to say to stoppin' here all water?"

"Impossible," said Ruby, with a sigh.

"No so, lad; what's to hinder?--Ah! there she goes."

The pipe fell with a crash to the floor, and burst with a Bright
shower of sparks, like a little bombshell.

"That's the third, Ruby, since I turned in," said the captain,
getting slowly over the side of his hammock, and alighting on the
floor heavily. "I won't git up again if it goes another time."

After knocking off the chimney-piece five or six articles which
appeared to be made of tin from