"Hunger gnaws my vitals. My name is Blunderbore. 'Twere better had I
been born a Blunderbuss, 'cause then I have _gone off_ and dwelt in
climes more shootable to my tender constitoosion. Ha! is that a bear I
sees before me?"

"It's not _sees_," interrupted Fred.

At this moment a tremendous roar was heard, and O'Riley bounded from
behind a top-sail which represented an iceberg, dressed from head to
foot in the skin of a white bear which had been killed a few days
before.

"Stop, O'Riley," cried Fred, "you're too soon, man. _I_ have to come on
first as an Esquimaux woman, and when Grim says to the woman he wishes
he could see a bear, _then_ you are to come."

"Och! whirra, but me brains is confuged intirely wid it all," said
O'Riley, rising on his hind-legs and walking off with his tail,
literally as well as figuratively, between his legs.

"Now, Buzzby, now; it's _your_ time--when you hear the word `misery'
come on and fight like a Trojan with the bears. The doctor will remind
you."

Fred was remarkably patient and painstaking, and his pupils, though not
apt scholars, were willing, so that the morning rehearsal was gone
through with fewer mistakes than might have been expected, and when the
crew came back to dinner about mid-day, which, however, was as dark as
midnight, their parts were sufficiently well got up, and nothing
remained to be done but to arrange the stage and scenery for the
evening's entertainment--it having been resolved that the performance
should commence after supper. The stage was at the after part of the
cabin, and raised about a foot above the deck, and its management had
been intrusted to the doctor, who, assisted by Peter Grim, transformed
that portion of the ship into a scene so romantically beautiful that the
first sight of it petrified the crew with surprise. But until the
curtain should rise all arrangements were carefully concealed from
everyone except the _dramatis personae_. Even the captain and officers
were forbidden to peep behind the sail that formed a curtain to the
stage, and this secrecy, besides being necessary, was extremely useful,
inasmuch as it excited the curiosity of the men and afforded them food
for converse and speculation, for a week before the great day arrived.

The longed-for hour came at last. The cabin tables having been removed,
and rows of seats placed in front of the stage, the men were admitted
from the deck, to which they had been expelled an