e boat.

"She will be too heavy," said one of the men, "with so much water."

"We can easily get rid of it," replied the mate. "If you had said she
would be too heavy with so much liquor on board, you had better
explained the matter; however, you must have your own ways, I suppose."

The next articles that they brought to stow away were the provisions.
The kid of fish was put amidships on the breakers, and the dried bird;
which they carried down in their arms, were packed up neatly in the
stern-sheets. They were soon up to the gunwale, and the mate said:

"You had better stow away forward now--there will be little room for the
lady as it is."

"No, no, stow them all aft," replied one of the men, in a surly tone;
"the lady must sit where she can. She's no better than we."

"Shall this go in?" said I, pointing to the coil of whale-line, and
addressing the mate.

"No, no; we must leave that," replied one of the men in the boat; "we
shall be wedged enough as it is; and I say, Jim, throw that old saw and
the bag of nails out of the boat--we can have no use for them."

The masts were then stepped, and the rigging set up to the gunnel of the
boat, the yards and sails handed in, and hooked on the halyards ready
for hoisting. In fact the boat was now all ready for starting; they had
only the iron kettle and two or three other articles to put in.

"Shall we have the mizen?" inquired one of the men, pointing to the
mast, which lay on the rocks.

"No, she steers quite as well without it," replied the mate. "We'll
leave it. And now, lad; hand the oars in."

They were brought to the boat, but owing to the puncheon of rum in the
centre, they could not lie flat, and after a good deal of arguing and
disputing, four oars and a boat-hook were lashed to the gunnel outside,
and the rest were left on the rocks.

At this time there was some consultation between the mate and some of
the men--the mate being evidently opposed by the others. I could not
hear what it was about, but the mate appeared very angry and very much
annoyed. At last he dashed his hat down on the rocks in a great
passion, saying:

"No good will come of it. Mark my words. No good ever did or ever
will. Be it so, you are too many for me; but I tell you again, no good
will come of it."

The mate then sat down on the rocks by himself, and put his head down on
his knees, covering it with his hands.

The man with whom he had been disputing went to the