d had just resumed our game; it was her cut, but she made no motion;
'Cut, Madame,' said I; 'Good Heavens!' exclaimed her partner, 'I've
a notion
That she _has_ cut for good; quick! help her! she's falling!'
And the next moment on the floor of the cabin she lay sprawling.
Poor Madame! It was in vain that we tried hartshorne, bathing
and bleeding;
Her spirit took its flight, tired to death of her high feeding:
For spirits are best content with steady habits and spare diet,
And will remain much longer in a tabernacle where they can enjoy
repose and quiet
Than in a body that is continually uneasy with stuffing,
And goes about like an overloaded porter, sweating and puffing.

The next morning at four-bells, the sun was just uprisen,
Glowing with very joy to leave his watery prison;
The bright cerulean waves with golden scales were crested,
Forming the fairest scene on which my eyes had ever rested;
The wind was S. S. W., and when they let go the main-top bowline
To square the after yards, our good ship stopped her rolling.
Madame lay on the quarter-deck sewed up in part of an old spanker,
And for this glorious sight of the ocean we had solely to thank her,
For to have kept her lying in the cabin would have caused some
of us to feel qualmish,
And she could not have been kept on deck, as the weather was
growing warmish;
Therefore it had been resolved in a kind of council, on the
captain's motion,
At sunrise to commit the old lady to the ocean.
She was placed upon a plank, resting upon the taffrail, (the
stern railing,)
One end of which was secured by a bight of the trysail brailing.
The captain read the prayers, somewhat curtailed, but a just proportion,
The plank was raised, 'Amen!' the corpse dropped into the ocean.
Down in its deep mysterious caves she sunk to sleep with fishes,
While a few bubbles rose from her and burst as if in mockery
of human wishes.
'Up with your helm; brace round; haul out your bowlines;
Clear up the deck; keep her full; coil down your tow-lines!'
The ship was on her course, and not a word said to remind us
Of the melancholy fact that we had left one of our number behind us.
'Shocking affair!' I remarked to Madame's partner, who looked
solemn as a mummy,
'O! horrid!' said he; '_I shall now be compelled to