was one of the finest and fastest craft out of
Liverpool. "Nothing could beat the _Black Swan_ when she had a mind to
put her best foot foremost." I was wondering whether ships really had
feet. I afterwards found that this was a figurative way of expressing
that she sailed fast. These observations were made when we returned
with my chest to Mr Cruden's, where we again met my future captain; and
when the sum agreed on for my voyage was paid into the hands of the
first-named person, my father's heart was softened towards me; and after
he had exhausted all the good advice he could think of, and had given me
several useful books, and many little articles of his own property, he
made me a present of six pounds as pocket-money, and to purchase
anything I might wish to bring back from America. He took his watch out
of his fob, and would have given me that also, but I persuaded him to
keep it, assuring him that I did not require it, and that I should
certainly break it, or lose it overboard, as would have been the case
probably the first time I went aloft. The next morning my poor father
returned by the steamer to Dublin. He felt very much, I am sure, at
parting from me, more than he would have done under other circumstances,
though by a considerable effort he mastered himself so as not publicly
to betray his emotions. He was gone; and I was left alone in the big
world to look after myself, with little more experience of its ways than
a child.

CHAPTER FOUR.

When my father was gone, I went back to Mr Cruden's office and asked
him to tell me where I could find his house, at which I understood I was
to lodge.

He looked up from the book in which he was writing, with an air of
surprise, and replied, "You are mistaken, my lad, if you suppose that I
am about to introduce into the bosom of my family one of whom I know
nothing. Your father is a very respectable man, I dare say, and you may
be a very estimable youth, for what I know; but it is generally a
different sort who are sent to sea as you are being sent; and therefore
it is just possible you may be a wild young scamp, whose face his
friends may never wish to behold again--hark you."

I blushed as he said this, and looked confused; for my conscience told
me that he spoke the truth.

"Ah! I guessed I was right," he continued. "Now, to answer your
question. While you remain on shore, which won't be for long, you may
swing your hammock in the loft over this