d she at last, and her eyes flashed for one
moment, clear, white, blazing light; but the children could not read her
name, for they were dazzled, and hid their faces in their hands.

'They were only water-babies, and just beginning to learn the meaning of
love.'

CHAPTER VIII.

DAVY JONES'S LOCKER.

This expression of what may be called nautical slang has now become
almost classic. At all events, everybody knows it; and most people may
be presumed to know that to 'go to Davy Jones's Locker' is equivalent to
'losing the number of your mess,' or, as the Californian miners say,
'passing in your checks.' Being especially a sea-phrase, it means, of
course, to be drowned. But how did the phrase originate? And who was
Davy Jones? These questions must have frequently occurred to many, and
it is worth while seeking an answer to them. There is an explanation for
everything, if one only knows how to look for it.

This saying about Davy Jones is a very old one--so old, that it cannot
possibly have any reference to the famous Paul Jones. In fact, one hears
very often of 'Davy's Locker' without any reference to 'Jones' at all.
Then 'Davy,' again, is a vulgar slang expression for affidavit, but it
is also used in thief-parlance by way of an oath. 'So help me Davy!' is
the slang equivalent for the concluding sentence of the oath
administered in the police-courts with which these gentry are familiar.
It has thus been inferred that 'Davy' is a slang expression of somewhat
blasphemous import; but this is by no means certain.

It is much more likely to be associated with, or to have the same origin
as, the 'Duffy' of the West Indian negroes. Among them Duffy means a
ghost; and in the vocabulary of the gutter it may easily have been taken
as the equivalent of soul. The transition from Duffy to Davy is by no
means difficult.

But how, then, did the vagabond users of 'flash' language get hold of
this word? It is probable enough that it was brought home by the sailors
from the West Indies, and picked up at the docks by the waifs and strays
of our vast vagrant population. On the other hand, it is just as likely
that the West Indian negroes picked up 'Duffy' from our own sailors; and
that, in fact, Duffy is just the nigger contraction of Davy Jones. There
is certainly a very close connection, both in sound and meaning, between
the two expressions.

We must go further back and further away, however, to get to the root of
this ma