rly the blue tiger--entered the hovel, and going hastily
to Bluenose, whispered in his ear.

A very remarkable transformation had taken place in the outward man of
poor Peekins. After coming with Bax to Deal he had been adopted, as it
were, by the co-partners of the hovel, and was, so to speak, shared
equally by Bax, Bluenose, old Jeph, and Tommy. The wonderfully thin and
spider-like appearance which he presented in his blue-tights and buttons
on his arrival, created such a howl of derisive astonishment among the
semi-nautical boys of Deal, that his friends became heartily ashamed of
him. Bax, therefore, walked him off at once to a slop-shop, where
sea-stores of every possible or conceivable kind could be purchased at
reasonable prices, from a cotton kerchief, with the Union Jack in the
middle of it, to the old anchor of a seventy-four gun ship, with a
wooden stock big enough to make a canoe.

Here Peekins was disrobed of his old garments, and clad in canvas
trousers, pilot-cloth jacket and vest, with capacious pockets, and a
sou'-wester; all of which fitted him so loosely that he felt persuaded
in his own mind he could easily have jumped out of them with an upward
bound, or have slipped out of them downwards through either leg of the
pantaloons. He went into that store a blue spider, he came out a
reasonable-looking seafaring boy, rather narrow and sloping about the
shoulders, it is true, but smart enough and baggy enough--especially
about the nether garments--to please even Bax, who, in such matters, was
rather fastidious.

The whispered communication, above referred to, had the effect of
causing Bluenose to spring up from the coil of rope, and exclaim--"You
don't say so!"

Then, checking himself, and looking mysterious, he said he wanted to
have a word with Bax in private, and would be obligated if he'd go with
him a bit along shore.

"Well, what's the news?" inquired Bax, when they were alone.

"We've heerd of Long Orrick," said Bluenose, eagerly.

"That's not much news," said Bax; "you told me there wasn't enough
witnesses to swear to him, or something o' that sort, and that it would
be no use attempting to put him in limbo, didn't you?"

"Ay," replied the other, striking his clenched right hand into the palm
of his left, "but the villain don't the less deserve to be tied up, and
get twelve dozen for all that. I'd content myself with knocking out
both his daylights for his cowardly attempt to badger a