the Channel in an open boat. Do you know a fishing-smack, sir, when you see her? Have you any papers on you proving what she was like, or her size, or rig, or name, eh? Mount the bulwarks, sir, and tell me if there is anything in sight like this dirty old smack you pretend you have lost; do you hear, sir?"

Up went the old man to starboard and the sons to port, looking around the horizon for something like their old smack, when one of the lads seeing the "Betty," shouted out, in defiance of all discipline, "Veather, heur's a smack a standing across our starn; by gosh her iz as like ourn as-no hur isn't nother; hurs bigger and better; but hurs same rig, so speak out and tell the mester your mind!”

"The old man looked across the ship and saw the smack; it was to him as the sight of an old friend; affection obscured it by the image of his Betty; his face worked; his arms moved towards it as if embracing his dame; he turned one look on our now greatly excited skipper, and, sinking into a crushed and wounded posture on the cannonade slide next him, he hid his face on his knees and sobbed aloud. In the twinkling of an eye our "Old Feller" was by his side, his arm round the old man, cocked hat off, and with his mouth touching the fisherman's ear, he whispered some cabalistic sounds to his broken heart; the old man raised his head, cast a bewildered look on our ashamed-looking skipper, and said, in sorrowful tones, "Oh, zur, dunnot play me no tricks, I connot abide it!" When our governor seized his hand in both his own, and, shaking it with a warmth and affection, beauteous to behold, exclaimed, "On my honour, old man, she's yours, and you and the boys are free as air; so forgive me, if, in trying to repair the involuntary injury I did you, I've had occasion to use a deception which I grieve to see has greatly distressed you. She's yours, I tell you, and she's called the 'Betty;' and God bless you and your good dame, and good luck to your new smack!"

Poor old man, he could only look his thanks; his lads too had got about him, and they all, as with one consent, were sinking down on their knees to our most noble captain, when he effectually stayed the motion by actually crying out, as if in pain, "Confound you all, stand up I say, or by George I'll keep you here till doomsday; kneel to God, and thank Him for your lives spared, your liberty restored, and your means of earning honest bread before you; and sometimes think of the man kindly who has been made happy in being of service to you! Young K-, signal the smack alongside, and man my gig. Mr Hput these men on board her with their several discharges, and provisions and grog for a week. And now, old man, once more good bye, and God bless you!"

With that he turned to look for his hat; Mr. H- gave it him. I was ready with the gig, and he hurried over the side into her; but it was no use trying to blink a crew who would have died for him; the rigging manned fore and aft, was alive with men, and as we shoved off, the cheer that shook the air was re-echoed by Portsdown Hill.

I am happy to say the old fisherman and his sons got safe home with and to, their "Betty," and imagination can easily depict the happiness of all concerned on their arrival. The day after their departure, the sailors' friends having been again admitted on board, our maintop-men were enabled to smuggle the fair lady who had made her passage in the maintop-chest from Plymouth to Portsmouth, into the ship, she never having been out of it, and the next job was to put a plan in force, by which she could join the ship as a seaman for the ensuing voyage without detection. My services were called into play, and having so long shared the top-chest with her, I entered into the joke with heart and soul, without giving a thought as to the serious consequences likely to ensue should I be detected as "particeps criminis," in so flagrant a breach of duty. She accordingly went on shore, got her back hair tied into a pigtail--an appendage in those days held as essential to the nautical bearing of a man-of-war's-man, as the same thing is to the honour and pride of a Chinaman-dressed her hands and face and neck in butter and tar, letting it absorb well into the pores of the skin, rigged herself out in sailor's toggery, and when all was prepared my part of the performance began. I was to speak to the first lieutenant, saying that Jem Bently's youngest brother was ashore and afriad of being pressed into another ship, and if he, Mr. I had no objection, and would let him do duty in the maintop watch with his brother Jem, he would volunteer and join the frigate. Mr. H——— asked me what sort of a lad he was, and I said safely enough that I did not know, but if he wished I'd find it out and report upon it to him. I was ordered to do so the next time I went on shore, and if he looked a likely lad to bring him on board.

Well, that day I saw Mrs. Bently aged 25, looking as like a swarthy complexioned lad of 20 as you'd wish to see, but the pig-tail was too old a dodge-it was out of place and years; and after many a bitter sigh, it was doomed to come off, and the remainder of the back hair to be "sniggled," as barbers call it, not cut straight square off, but part of it frizzled back and the rest cut off and the other part then combed over it again. The next difficulty was not so easily overcome, but a very large pair of trousers lessened the effect considerably. Well, the next NO. 11.-VOL. X.

3T

great matter was to get her on board at dusk, report her to the first lieutenant then, and get her passed muster by candle-light. The whole disguise was perfect except the voice, and the attempt at speaking like a man only produced a very unmanly squeak. However, my making her repeat "No, sir," and "Yes, sir," over and over again, in a gruff sort of voice, had some effect; and, at any rate, "Nothing venture nothing have" stared us in the face; so after a lapse of three days I brought her off in the captain's gig one evening after leaving him ashore, and went and reported myself and Jem Bentley's brother as being on board. Mr. H was in his own berth, and in reply to report said, "Oh, aye, bye the by, youngster, I have to pay you a very deserved compliment for the way you kept your secret the other day. I am at liberty now to tell you I had orders from the captain to pump you pretty strongly on that head, and I think you'll allow I did my best; but you were close as wax, and mind you always keep so in matters of confidence; and now let me have a look at your lad.”

"Well away I went on deck; and, telling Bob Bently to follow me, returned to the first lieutenant's cabin. On the way down I pressed Bob's hand to re-assure him, and felt it as cold as a stone. That very touch illuminated my mind like an electric flame as to the folly of my present conduct, and the risk I was running in aiding others to smuggle a woman into the ship; but it was too late to pull up, so in we went, and which of us looked the most guilty I can't pretend to say, but I can safely assert I felt the most so.

"This is young Bob Bently, sir," said I.

“Oh, well my lad, so you want to join this ship, eh?"

"If you please, sir."

"Aye, because your brother's aboard, eh? Well, I've no objection, only as to your doing duty in the maintop, my lad, I must know something about whether you're able first; how long have you been to sea, and in what trade, eh?"

"Three years, sir, in the coasting trade!"

"Aye exactly, you're one of those long shore chaps who try everything else and fail, and then think they're fit to make sailors of: why how old are you, eh?"

"Twenty, sir."

"Aye, exactly so, you begin to serve your time at sea when you ought to have served it, and now you come here as one of the King's beef-eaters. The main-top is no place for you, my lad, but, umph! if I thought you were less a thief than a horse, I'd make you my boy; that young scoundrel I have is as dirty as a Spanish town, and you do look

like something sweet and clean. Would you like that, eh, my lad? because if so, say so, and if you'll behave well I'll make a man of you, although it's too often a hopeless case trying to do so; so on young -'s recommendation I'll take you;—yes or no, eh?”

"Yes, if you please, sir," said the abominable stupid woman, and the whole affair was in one moment, what her irate husband called, "flummuxed."

Mr. H— simply added, "Very well, my lad, this young gentleman will have the kindness to arrange about you, and the steward will tell you how to go on as to looking after me. Good night; take the lad along with you, and get him put into his brother's mess, and see him entered on the books, and show him to the steward."

So away we accordingly went, and I had only to do as I was ordered; and one thing more, for meeting the master-at-arms, I said, "This lad is come on board to be the first lieutenant's servant, and he is Jem Bently's (the maintop-man's) brother, and is to mess with him."

"Werry well, sir," said that functionary, "I shall know 'im again verehever I sees 'im;" and so having handed young Bob over to his brother, I went and turned in about as wretched a young ass as ever got himself gratuitously into a scrape. What was to be done; she was sure to be found out, and then what a row there'd be; and, worst of all, she was not stationed in the maintop, and we should never share the maintop-chest watch between us again; and, oh dear! it was a stupid business from beginning to end, and no help for it.

However, as luck would have it, the next day we were ordered off to sea, ship cleared of all strangers, hands mustered (this time) right, including "Boy Bob," and at 7h. p.m., we had cleared the Needles Passage, and were standing down Channel on a regular man-of-war's cruise, and very bad weather we had for about a week, reefing, furling, and stowing sails, and securing guns, boats, spars, yards, and every moveable thing. At last it cleared up, and away we stood for the Western Islands, with baffling winds and calms, enough to irritate a saint; and our captain, not being of that class, but the reverse, was in the most abominable temper possible. Nothing could please him; and the quantity of trumpets and spy glasses he destroyed and flattened by shying them at fellows' heads, was perfectly painful to behold. Day by day did I tremble in my shoes about "Boy Bob," being found out, and night by night did I dream she was metamorphosed into some horrible monster who was strangling me in the top-chest; and then all the maintop-men, and I too, agreed that she was sure to be found out, and if she could not win over the first lieutenant to her secret, there would be the cat-o'-nine tails for Jem Bently, and the most complete degradation for

poor me, and, as her husband said, "All along of a woman as couldn't hact like a man."

It is a very true saying, the why and wherefore of which would make a most curious study, that misfortunes seldom come singly. You get a run of bad luck at cards, yet you never played better in your life; you change sides, leave off, try again, get a fresh pack-all of no use, lose you must and do; and, more serious still, you've heavy stakes on a well-known unbeatable horse, with a good and unbribeable jockey; you bet the long odds in his favour; he starts, he leads, he takes every rasping fence like a two-foot ditch; now he comes to the last leap, thronged with a gaping crowd; a drunken man, heedless of shouts, attempts to cross the course; your horse receives him on his shoulder, and carries him, himself, and rider into the brook he was about to clear. Whose fault was it, yours?-no! your man's or horse's?—no! drink! A thousand other and more painful cases might be cited, but it is needless.

Somehow or other things seemed to go wrong with us on purpose; topsail sheets parted and sprung the yards, two jib-booms went like carrots, the main top-gallant yard came down by the run, passing through the upper deck and lodging on the main one, and, of course, all kinds of courts of enquiry were held, and some one had to take the blame and the punishment. Nobody knew where we were going, and, as a finish to this unpleasant state of things, we chased a vessel for a whole day, and she beat us. I've great reason to remember that said chase, for it was during that day that our maintop-gallant-studding-sail-halyards parted, and produced a torrent of abuse and oaths from our angry skipper on the heads of the maintop-men and myself fearful to listen to: now there was a standing order in the ship, that on no pretence whatever was a man to work with a marlinspike (a round piece of iron, about a foot long and an inch in diameter, pointed at one end and rounded at the other, with a small hole through its rounded end) without a lanyard (or string) through said hole, the other end of which was looped round the neck of the man working with it, so that, if the marlinspike perchance slipped through his fingers, the string would prevent its falling on deck from aloft, and laming or killing any one beneath. On this occasion, however, Bill Williams, in his hurry to get the rope spliced and sail set again, as quick as thought seized on a marlinspike without a lanyard, and, as one curse still more bitter than the last ascended to the top from the lips of our skipper, who was standing nearly under it, confusion and hurry caused the marlinspike to slip from his fingers, through the lubber's hole, and down like a rocket, on deck, where it buried its pointed end two inches in the deck, and within one of our dreadful commander's toes. He never flinched a hair's breadth;