foes and wreck. Let me be anything but the companion of men who
snore like the famous Furies in the old Greek play." While I am venting
my indignation, and collecting my bedding, the smiling and sleepy face
of Mr. Migott disappears slowly from the side of the hammock--and before
I am on deck, I hear the oily purr once more, just as amiable, soft, and
regular as ever.

What a relief it was to have the sky to look up at, the fresh night air
to breathe, the quiet murmur of the sea to listen to! I rolled myself up
in my blankets; and, for aught I know to the contrary, was soon snoring
on deck as industriously as my companions were snoring below.

The first sounds that woke me in the morning were produced by the
tongues of the natives of Clovelly, assembled on the pier, staring down
on me in my nest of blankets, and shouting to each other incessantly. I
assumed that they were making fun of the interesting stranger stretched
in repose on the deck of the Tomtit; but I could not understand one word
of the Devonshire language in which they spoke. Whatever they said of
me, I forgive them, however, in consideration of their cream and fresh
herrings. Our breakfast on the cabin-hatch in Clovelly harbour, after a
dip in the sea, is a remembrance of gustatory bliss which I gratefully
cherish. When we had reduced the herrings to skeletons, and the
cream-pot to a whited sepulchre of emptiness, we slipped from our
moorings, and sailed away from the lovely little village with sincere
regret. By noon we were off Hartland Point.

We had now arrived at the important part of our voyage--the part at
which it was necessary to decide, once for all, on our future
destination. Mr. Migott and I took counsel together solemnly, unrolled
the charts, and then astonished our trusty crew by announcing that the
end of the voyage was to be the Scilly Islands. Up to this time the
Brothers Dobbs had been inclined to laugh at the notion of getting so
far in so small a boat. But they began to look grave now, and to hint at
cautious objections. The weather was certainly beautiful; but then the
wind was dead against us. Our little vessel was stiff and sturdy enough
for any service, but nobody on board knew the strange waters into which
we were going--and, as for the charts, could any one of us study them
with a proper knowledge of the science of navigation? Would it not be
better to take a little cruise to Lundy Island, away there on the
starboard bow? And ano