nto Saint John's, Newfoundland. He
and I belonged to the same boat's crew. Soon after we got there we were
sent on shore to water. After some time, as the rest of our party were
rolling the casks down to the beach, we managed to slip away, and made a
run of it for a mile or more, till we could stow ourselves snug inside
the walls of an old cottage. As soon as it was dark we came out, and
set off as hard as we could go right into the country. We thought some
one was following us, but we were wrong. The officers knew better than
we did what sort of a place we had got into, and calculated that we
shouldn't be long before wishing ourselves back again.

"At night we reached a cottage, where the good people treated us kindly,
for, do ye see, we spun them a long yarn, which hadn't a word of truth
in it, about our being sent away up there to look after a shipmate who
had lost his senses. So, after we had eaten and drunken and taken a
good snooze, we set off again towards the mountains, for we had a notion
that we should find our way somehow or other into America. We expected
to fall in with another village, but we were mistaken, and by
dinner-time we began to feel very peckish. There was no use standing
still, so we walked on and on till we got further up among the
mountains, and as the sun was hid by clouds, and there was no wind, we
very soon lost our way.

"Now, do ye see, to lose your way with a full stomach is not altogether
pleasant, but to lose it on an empty one, and not to know where a dinner
is to be found, is worse any day than to get three dozen. That's got
quickly over, and you know the worst. We had no baccy neither, and the
air up there sharpened our teeth till we were ready to bite our tongues
out.

"`Well, mate,' says I to Abraham Coxe, `I wish that I were safe aboard
again. I don't by no manner of means like these short commons.'

"`Wait a bit till we have been knocking about for two or three days
more, and then cry out, my bo',' says he, for he was a regular Job's
comforter, that he was.

"Well, evening was coming on, and as we couldn't find our way out of the
mountains, nor get any food either, we thought that we might as well
look out for a warm berth to sleep in at night. At last we saw a small
hole in a rock, which looked like the mouth of a cave.

"`There will be a comfortable bed-place inside that place, mate,' says
I, as I poked my head into the hole, while Abraham stood outside. It