e that Bob came on deck again, at seven-bells, to prepare
breakfast, I had my hands full. The sea was fast getting up, and I
began to tremble for my spars and gear. The glass had fallen rather
suddenly, and altogether there seemed to be every prospect of a regular
summer gale.

Bob was of the same opinion as myself in this respect, so we decided to
get everything snug and in readiness for the blow before thinking of
breakfast.

This was rather a ticklish job, for it was now blowing far too strong to
round-to and shorten sail, and it required something more than
freshwater seamanship to get our big mainsail in without getting into
trouble. But Bob seemed perfectly at home. He set the weather-topping-
lift up hand-taut, and took a turn with the lee one; then dropped the
peak of the mainsail until the end of the gaff was pressing against the
lee-lift; triced the tack right up to the throat; then let run the
throat-halliards, and hauled down the throat of the sail by the tack
tripping-line; whilst I rounded in upon the main-sheet. Then, by
lowering away the peak, and carefully gathering in the canvas as it came
down, we got our big sail snugly down without any trouble. This we
carefully stowed and covered up with its coat.

Next, Bob got the jib in, close-reefed the bowsprit, and set the
smallest or _storm_ jib, with its sheet eased well off. I hauled in the
weather fore-sheet until it was just in the wake of the mast, and our
little barkie was then left to take care of herself whilst we got the
trysail bent and set.

This done, we filled away again upon our course, with reduced speed, it
is true, but very comfortably indeed.

It was well we took these precautions when we did, for by noon that day
it had hardened down into a regular summer gale, with a really
formidable sea for so small a craft. Still, we continued to run away
very nearly dead before it, and that too without deviating from our
proper course.

I managed, with the utmost difficulty, in consequence of the violent
motion of the boat, to get an observation at noon, by which I found that
we had run, since six o'clock on the previous evening, a distance of no
less than one hundred and sixty-four miles. This placed us at about the
entrance to the Bay of Biscay, which we were thus running into in a gale
of wind. Still, I did not experience the slightest degree of alarm: our
little craft was behaving beautifully--_angelically_. Bob termed it,
and r