to stop and consider
which is my proper name, and certainly could not avoid answering to that
of Will Weatherhelm.

If one of my old shipmates were to be asked if he knew Willand
Wetherholm, he would certainly say, "No; never heard of such a man."

"But don't you remember Will Weatherhelm?"

"I should think so, my boy," would be his reply, and I hope he would say
something in my favour.

We had a quick run to the southward till we were somewhere off the
latitude of Lisbon, when a gale sprung up from the eastward which drove
us off the land, and not only carried every stitch of canvas clear of
the bolt-ropes, but very nearly took the masts out of the vessel. It
was my watch below when the gale came on, and I was awoke by the
terrific blows which the schooner received on her bows; and what with
the darkness and the confusion caused by the noise of the sea and the
rattling of the blocks aloft, the stamp of feet overhead, and the
creaking of the bulk-heads, I fully believed the ship was going down,
and that my last moment had come. I thought of my poor old
grandmother's warnings, and I would have given anything if I could have
recalled my oath and found myself once more safe by her side. "All
hands shorten sail!" soon sounded in my ears. I slipped into my clothes
in a moment, and hastened on deck. The sky overhead was as black as
pitch, and looked as if it was coming down to crush the vessel between
it and the ocean, and every now and then vivid flashes of lightning
darted forth from it, playing round the rigging and showing the huge
black seas as they came rolling up like walls capped with white foaming
tops, with a loud rushing roar, as if they were about to overwhelm us.
A rope's-end applied to my back made me start, and I heard the voice of
old Cole, saying, "Hillo, youngster, what are you dreaming about? Up
aloft there, and help furl the topsails." Aloft I went, though I
thought every moment that I should be blown away or shaken from the
shrouds; and when I got on the yards, I had to hold with teeth and
eyelids, as the saying is, and very little use I suspect I was of.
Still the sails, or rather what remained of them, were furled, and I had
been aloft in a gale. I very soon learned to think nothing of it.

We were many days regaining our lost ground, and it was three weeks
after leaving Falmouth before we sighted the Rock of Gibraltar. We did
not stop there, but the wind being then fair, ran on through t