you please--no thirteens, no Fridays, no dead men in
the hold. I believe it generally happens that way.

I dare say you remember those two Benton boys that were so much
alike? It is no wonder, for they were twin brothers. They shipped
with us as boys on the old _Boston Belle_, when you were mate
and I was before the mast. I never was quite sure which was which
of those two, even then; and when they both had beards it was
harder than ever to tell them apart. One was Jim, and the other
was Jack; James Benton and John Benton. The only difference I
ever could see was, that one seemed to be rather more cheerful
and inclined to talk than the other; but one couldn't even be
sure of that. Perhaps they had moods. Anyhow, there was one of
them that used to whistle when he was alone. He only knew one
tune, and that was "Nancy Lee," and the other didn't know any
tune at all; but I may be mistaken about that, too. Perhaps they
both knew it.

Well, those two Benton boys turned up on board the _Helen B.
Jackson_. They had been on half a dozen ships since the _Boston
Belle_, and they had grown up and were good seamen. They had
reddish beards and bright blue eyes and freckled faces; and they
were quiet fellows, good workmen on rigging, pretty willing, and
both good men at the wheel. They managed to be in the same
watch--it was the port watch on the _Helen B._, and that was
mine, and I had great confidence in them both. If there was any
job aloft that needed two hands, they were always the first to
jump into the rigging; but that doesn't often happen on a
fore-and-aft schooner. If it breezed up, and the jibtopsail was
to be taken in, they never minded a wetting, and they would be
out at the bowsprit end before there was a hand at the downhaul.
The men liked them for that, and because they didn't blow about
what they could do. I remember one day in a reefing job, the
downhaul parted and came down on deck from the peak of the
spanker. When the weather moderated, and we shook the reefs out,
the downhaul was forgotten until we happened to think we might
soon need it again. There was some sea on, and the boom was off
and the gaff was slamming. One of those Benton boys was at the
wheel, and before I knew what he was doing, the other was out on
the gaff with the end of the new downhaul, trying to reeve it
through its block. The one who was steering watched him, and got
as white as cheese. The other one was swinging about on the gaff
end,