cracked. The cabins were in the same
condition, with the exception of one which the
captain had rendered habitable for his
occasional use. Shortly after our arrival, he came
on board.

"Oh! — You 're the man Myers spoke
about — the shipkeeper?"

"Yes, sir."

"Very well. There isn 't much for you to
do at present; you 'd better make yourself as
comfortable as you can."

And away he went below; and down I
went too, to examine what sort of a place I
had to do so in. On descending the
"Bohemian's " fok'stle-ladder, the prospect would not
have presented itself to a landsman as auguring
much comfort, even had he conceived it
habitable. Perhaps the difference of a sailor's
habits, or the force of necessity, made me
view it more favourably. It was large, and
had six bunks on each side, roomy enough to
carry double; it was tolerably clean, and
did not show any traces of leakage; so,
upon the whole, I was tolerably well satisfied.
Some of the bunks were filled with
blocks, and coils of rope, and gear of all
kinds; and, having cleared out one, which
seemed, from its position, to receive more
light than the others from the little scuttle, I
arranged my bed in it as comfortably as I
could, and returned on deck.

The "old man" was pacing his quarterdeck,
smoking a cigar, and awaiting dinner,
which Myers was busy cooking in the caboose
on deck; whence, eveiy now and then, he
popped his head, glistening with warmth, to
exchange a word or a joke with me. One
feels a sort of guilty consciousness— at least I
always do — when doing nothing in the
presence of an employer, even although there is
absolutely nothing to do. Everything was
too far gone to be mended in any way, except
by something new: so I sat on the windlass,
and stared in desperation at the "old
man," every time he turned his back in his
walk.

"Here," said he, at last, perhaps divining
my thoughts.

"Sir?"

"You may put the signal-flags to rights,
if you like; you 'll find 'em all in the cabin;
and Myers will get you what bunting and
thread you want."

I felt really glad to have something to do;
so I went about my new task immediately.

"Of course you understand you are always
to sleep on board ? " added the captain, as
I passed with a bundle of flags I had just
brought up under my arm.

I replied in the affirmative; and, sitting
in a corner, busied myself about my work.
Nothing occurred during the day to interfere
with my quiet duties; nor did there
seem much chance of any interruption to
our way of life. Myers and I had our
chats, and the captain his dinner, as regularly
as possible. Sometimes he would remain all
day and all night, and sometimes only one
hour out of the twenty-four.

I felt lonely enough my first night in the
old barque. I had one short piece of candle
for my nightly allowance; and, when Myers
had left me for the after-part of the ship,
which was under his charge, I trimmed it up,
and fixed it firmly in iny bottle-candlestick,
preparatory to having a read and a smoke; for,
in tumbling over the things in the bunks, I
had found, among other things, some pages of
"Letters of Lord Byron." This was too great
a prize in the present state of affairs for me
to trouble myself how they got there. At
last, after a long read, I fell asleep. Once I
woke with the old ship's harsh grating against
the quay, as a passing steamer rocked her.
Then there were rats rummaging among the
blocks and ropes in the bunk above me.
One ran across my face. Presently I heard
a footstep, I fancied, on the deck, making
the empty ship re-echo. I jumped up the
ladder, and looked round; but there was
nothing visible in the quiet moonlight. Again
I turned in and dozed; but a sounding
noise, as if some one had fallen in the hold,
again startled me. I felt certain some one
was moving about in the ship, and was about
getting up and rousing Myers, when I heard
my shoes dragged across the deck by the rats,
and another hullabaloo among the blocks overhead;
so I put everything down to them, and
fell asleep at last. The next morning I asked
Myers if he had heard anything? He said
he, too, had fancied he'd heard a noise in the
night. However, we both accused the rats,
and thought nothing more of it.

The after-part of the ship, which was
partitioned off into cabins, and the midship part of
the between-decks were divided by a bulkhead,
through which there was a communication
by means of two doors, now generally left
unlocked. This intermediate space between
the cabins and the bulkhead, called the steerage,
was used as an indiscriminate sort of
repository. Here, of an evening, I put my
flags away when I had done work.

Day after day passed in the same manner
as the first; except that the captain was
sometimes not in the best of humours, as I
could hear by his rating Myers, though he
seldom said anything to me. Myers
himself, too, of a morning, was sometimes in a
tremendous way, for he discovered the loss
of sundry eatables from the galley, which
disappeared in a mysterious manner in the
night. I heard noises, too, at times in the
night; but had become too much
accustomed to them to take any more notice;
having once with Myers had, as we
conceived, a thorough overhaul of the ship in
consequence. I became accustomed to my
solitary occupation of the fok'stle, and used
to lay in daybreak and watch the rats, or
listen to the cries of some poor slave being
flogged ashore; which latter was not at all
an unfrequent occurrence. One day the