n you must be a powder-monkey with me; you can hand powder up, if
you can do nothing else."

"I can do more," replied Willy, proudly; "I can roll shells overboard."

"Ay, ay, so you can: I forgot that. I suppose I must put you on the
quarter-deck, and make an officer of you, as Captain M--- intended to
do."

"I mean to stand by you when we fight," said Willy, taking McElvina's
hand.

"Thank you--that may not be so lucky. I'm rather superstitious; and, if
I recollect right, your old friend Adams had that honour when he was
killed."

The name of old Adams being mentioned, made Willy silent and unhappy.
McElvina perceived it; the conversation was dropped, and they returned
home.

A few days afterwards, _La Belle Susanne_ sailed, amidst the shouts and
vivas of the multitude collected on the pier, and a thousand wishes for
"_succes_," and "_bon voyage_"--the builder clapping his hands, and
skipping with all the simial ecstasy of a Frenchman, at the encomiums
lavished upon his vessel, as she cleaved through the water with the
undeviating rapidity of a barracouta. But the _vivas_, and the shouts,
and the builder, and the pier that he capered on, were soon out of
sight; and our hero was once more confiding in the trackless and
treacherous ocean.

"Well, she _does_ walk," said Phillips, who had followed the fortunes of
his captain, and was now looking over the quarter of the vessel. "She
must be a clipper as catches us with the tacks on board! Right in the
wind's eye too; clean full. By the powers, I believe if you were to
lift her, she would lay a point on the other side of the wind."

"Get another pull of the fore-halyards, my lads," cried McElvina.
"These new ropes stretch most confoundedly. There, belay all that; take
a _severe_ turn, and don't come up an inch."

The breeze freshened, and the lugger flew through the water, dashing the
white spray from her bows into the air, where it formed little rainbows,
as it was pierced by the beams of the setting sun.

"We shall have a fine night, and light weather towards the morning, I
think," said the first mate, addressing McElvina.

"I think so too. Turn the hands up to muster by the quarter-bell.
We'll load the guns as soon as the lights are out; let the gunner fill
forty rounds, and desire the carpenter to nail up the hatchway-screens.
Let them be rolled up and stopped. We'll keep them up for a _full due_,
till we return to Havre."

The crew of the lugger