dst of my political meditations, the steward popped his head
above the companion, touched his hair, as he always did when he had no
hat on, and said,

"Breakfast ready, Sir."

My appetite soon clambered to the summit on which my mind had been
perched, and desired obedience to what I heard; and in justification of
my health, I ate a good breakfast. I returned on deck, an hour
afterwards, holding little Jacko in my arms, who was surfeited with
coffee, marmalade, fish, and egg, even to lethargy.

It was ten o'clock. R---- and I sitting on the taffrail aft, P----
having gone ashore, were basking in the bright sunshine of the Sunday
May morning, and comparing the temperature, scenes, and manners of
Copenhagen, with the variable winds, the Primrose Hill, and the
exuberant Sabbath spirits of London, when the sailing-master came, with
rather a longer face than usual, to the spot where we were lounging,
and, after his customary greeting of "Good morning, my Lord," and "Good
morning, Sir," said,

"I have a complaint to make, my Lord."

"Well, out with it" R---- replied.

"You know, my Lord," D---- continued, "old Tom, Dick, and George were
allowed to go ashore yesterday, and, instead of behaving like decent
fellows, as they ought to have done on arriving at a foreign port, they
must get drunk, and nearly drown themselves in trying to get off to the
vessel."

"The deuce they did; and when did this occur?" inquired R----.

"They got drunk last night; but they nearly got drowned this morning, my
Lord," D---- answered.

"Where are the men?" asked R----.

"On board, my Lord," D---- said.

"Send them aft."

Away went D---- in search of the delinquent tars; and, as soon as he had
got out of ear-shot, R---- observed to me,

"Is not this like these English blackguards? I dare say they have kicked
up the devil's own row ashore, and, by squabbling with the inhabitants,
brought my vessel into disrepute."

"Let us hear their story before we condemn them," I said; and in two
minutes more old Tom, Dick, and George, were arranged in a line before
R----, who still continued sitting, cross-legged, on the taffrail, abaft
the tiller. They all three looked sheepish enough, and, if one might
judge innocence and guilt from the countenance, they seemed criminal in
the extreme.

"Well, Tom," R---- commenced, "what is all this about?"

"The Cap'n, my Lord," said Tom, twitching up his duck trowsers on the
port side, "gave us leave to