d at Gravesend," I repeated after him, my mind
greatly relieved; for I had been much concerned as to how and when the
captain would make his appearance as well as the remainder of the crew,
having read enough about ships to know that the Silver Queen could not
well be navigated with such a small number of hands as were only in her
then. "And will he bring any more sailors with him?"

"Aye, sonny, the howl bilin' av the crew, barrin' us chaps here alriddy.
Yis, an' our say pilot will come aboord there, the river one lavin' us
there."

"I'm glad of that," I said. "I thought there weren't enough on board to
sail the ship, with only you four men and the boy who struck the bell!"

"Did ye? Then, sure, ye've got the makin's av a sailor in yez afther
all, as Misther Mackay aid whin he foorst clapped eyes on ye. An',
sure, it's now me toorn to be afther axin' quistions, me bhoy--don't ye
feel peckish loike?"

"Peckish?" I echoed, unable to understand him.

"Now, don't go on loike an omadhawn, an' make me angry, as ye did at
foorst," he cried. "I mane are yez houngry? For I don't belaive you've
hid a bit insoide yer little carcase since ye came aboord this forenoon;
an' we're now gittin' through the foorst dog-watch."

I declare I never thought of it before, but, now he mentioned it, I did
feel hungry--very much so, indeed, not having tasted a morsel since the
hasty meal that morning before leaving home; when, as might be supposed,
I did not have over much of an appetite, with the consciousness that it
might possibly be the last time I should breakfast with father and
mother and sister Nell. The parting with Tom did not affect me much, as
he had got priggish and rather above a boy like me since he had been to
Oxford.

"By the powers!" exclaimed the kind Irishman when I confessed to feeling
"peckish," as he called it, telling him I had not had anything since
eight o'clock that morning, "ye must be jist famished, me poor gossoon;
an' if I'd been so long without grub, why it's atin' me grandfather I'd
be, or my wife's sister's first coosin, if I had one! But, now I've got
this cable snug, jist you come along o' me, me bhoy, an' we'll say what
that Portygee stooard hez lift in his panthry; for I've got no proper
mess yit an' have to forage in the cabin."

"I thought you said, though, he was bad tempered," I observed as I
followed the boatswain along the deck towards the door opening into the
cuddy from the main-dec