or
I'll do--I'll do--I'll do what you shall see."

This was said in a terrifically gruff voice. Before I had time to look
about me, the two monsters had dragged me forward before his marine
majesty and his spouse; and one producing a huge cold tar brush, and the
other a piece of rusty hoop, I found my face paid over with some most
odorous lather. I cried out to Jerry, who I thought, as a friend, ought
to help me; but he pretended to be in a dreadful fright, and when the
monsters ran after him he managed to shove so violently against me that
he sent me head first into a large tub of water which stood at the feet
of Neptune. I was, however, immediately hauled out by the shaggy
Tritons, and after a fresh application of lather, my face was scraped
over with the piece of hoop.

"Douse him--douse the baby again!" shouted Neptune; and from the mode I
was treated, I thought that I should have been nearly drowned, had not
Mrs Neptune, or rather Amphitrite, interfered in a voice which was
intended to be very affectionate, but which sounded as if the poor lady
had a very sore throat, and begged that I might be allowed to return to
my cradle to sleep out the remainder of my watch.

"Oh, good mother, your sex are always gentle and kind," I answered,
determining to jump with the humour of the thing, and to show that I had
not lost my temper, although the ceremony I had gone through was far
from pleasant. "Now, if you'll just leave one of your squires here
aboard, and he'll come aft by-and-by, I'll try if I can fish out a
five-shilling piece from the bottom of my chest, to buy you and your
good man some baccy and rum, to cheer you when you get back to your own
fireside."

"Well spoken, like a true son of the Ocean!" exclaimed Neptune, patting
me on the back. "For that same notion you are free from henceforth and
for ever of my watery realms; seeing also as how you have been lathered
and shaved and crossed the line. So here are three cheers for Mr Harry
Hopeton; and may he live to sail round the world, and to command as fine
a ship as this here craft--and finer, too!"

The crew, at Neptune's beck, on this gave three hearty cheers; and while
the Tritons were chasing down some lads and two or three men, who had
never before crossed the line, I made my escape towards a tub of clean
water, and thence to my cabin, where I very soon removed all traces of
the discipline I had gone through. By the time the captain appeared the
wh