of mischief, we didn't
exactly understand what it was to be.

About noon of that day I was called on deck and told that old father
Neptune was coming aboard, and we were to be ready to receive him. A
minute after I saw a tremendous monster come up over the side of the
ship and jump on the deck. He was crowned with seaweed, and painted in
a wonderful fashion; his clothes were dripping wet, as if he had just
come from the bottom of the sea. After him came another monster with a
petticoat made of sailcloth and a tippet of a bit of old tarpaulin.
This was Neptune's wife, and these two carried on the most remarkable
antics I ever saw. I laughed heartily, and soon discovered, from the
tones of their voices, which of my shipmates Neptune and his wife were.
But my mirth was quickly stopped when I was suddenly seized by several
men, and my face was covered over with a horrible mixture of tar and
grease!

Six of us youngsters were treated in this way; then the lather was
scraped off with a piece of old hoop-iron, and, after being thus
shaved, buckets of cold water were thrown over us.

At last, after a prosperous voyage, we arrived at our fishing-ground in
the South Seas, and a feeling of excitement and expectation began to
show itself among the men, insomuch that our very eyes seemed brighter
than usual.

One night those of us who had just been relieved from watch on deck
were sitting on the lockers down below telling ghost stories.

It was a dead calm, and one of those intensely dark, hot nights, that
cause sailors to feel uneasy, they scarce know why. I began to feel so
uncomfortable at last, listening to the horrible tales which Tom Lokins
was relating to the men, that I slipt away from them with the intention
of going on deck. I moved so quietly that no one observed me; besides,
every eye was fixed earnestly on Tom, whose deep low voice was the only
sound that broke the stillness of all around. As I was going very
cautiously up the ladder leading to the deck, Tom had reached that part
of his story where the ghost was just appearing in a dark churchyard,
dressed in white, and coming slowly forward, one step at a time,
towards the terrified man who saw it. The men held their breath, and
one or two of their faces turned pale as Tom went on with his
description, lowering his voice to a hoarse whisper. Just as I put my
head up the hatchway the sheet of one of the sails, which was hanging
loose in the still air, pas