sprang up and rubbed their eyes, the men below rushed wildly up
the hatchway, the cook came tearing out of his own private den,
flourishing a soup-ladle in one hand and his tormentors in the other,
the steward came tumbling up with a lump of dough in his fist that he
had forgot to throw down in his haste, and the captain bolted up from
the cabin without his hat.

"Where away?" cried he, with more than his usual energy.

"Right off the starboard beam, sir."

"Square the yards! Look alive, my hearties," was the next order; for
although the calm sea was like a sheet of glass, a light air, just
sufficient to fill our top-gallant sails, enabled us to creep through
the water.

"Hurrah!" shouted the men as we sprang to obey.

"What does she look like?" roared the captain.

"A big ship, sir, I think," replied the look-out, "but I can only just
make out the top of her main t-gallan' s'l."--(Sailors scorn to speak of
_top-gallant sails_).

Gradually, one by one, the white sails of the stranger rose up like
cloudlets out of the sea, and our hearts beat high with hope and
expectation as we beheld the towering canvas of a full-rigged ship rise
slowly into view.

"Show our colours," said the captain.

In a moment the Union Jack of Old England was waving at the mast-head in
the gentle breeze, and we watched anxiously for a reply. The stranger
was polite; his colours flew up a moment after, and displayed the
Stripes and Stars of America.

"A Yankee!" exclaimed some of the men in a tone of slight
disappointment.

I may remark, that our disappointment arose simply from the fact that
there was no chance, as we supposed, of getting news from "home" out of
a ship that must have sailed last from America. For the rest, we cared
not whether they were Yankees or Britons--they were men who could speak
the English tongue, that was enough for us.

"Never mind, boys," cried one, "we'll have a jolly gam; that's a fact."

"So we will," said another, "and I'll get news of my mad Irish cousin,
Terrence O'Flannagan, who went out to seek his fortin in Ameriky with
two shillin's and a broken knife in his pocket, and it's been said he's
got into a government situation o' some sort connected with the jails,--
whether as captain, or leftenant o' police, or turnkey, I'm not rightly
sure."

"More likely as a life-tenant of one of the cells," observed Bill Blunt,
laughing.

"Don't speak ill of a better man than yerself behind his back,"