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But then there seemed something wanting in this chain of warnings. The "Ay,

en as one speaks when troubled with the singultus, vulgice, hiccup. The "Good look-out on the starboard gangway" was, however, given with its full measure of intonation, and perhaps something more; it was evidently a sort of make-weight for the deficiency of the faltering "Ay, ay."

"Small by degrees, and beautifully less!" No heavy and cumbrous rigging hung awk-ay," came not readily forth, and was spokwardly about them, but the little that could be discerned seemed like a thin and transparent drapery thrown lightly over beauty. Indeed, as you beheld these masts, and the tightened cordage about them, you would suppose them all too attenuated to stand before the sweep of the careering gale, or that, when the storm sent forth its desolating blast, they would be snapped asunder like a thread of burnt flax. They had been tried in the northern gale and proved in the southern hurricane, and found strong as they were graceful.

Now we have, on this beautiful moonlight night, arrived at the forecastle starboard look-out, we will rest there awhile; for this self-same look-out will be found to be very intimately connected with our narrative of facts-facts as true as they are singular.

This particular seaman was a foundling, had been bred up by the parish of Deptford, and educated by the Marine Society in their ship off the dockyard of that place. Being at a loss for a name for their charge, the overseers had had the boy christened Francis Flylightly; but they were, as it will shortly be seen, particularly unfortunate in the surname.

The ship was making her way down Channel, and the wind having died away, and the tide becoming adverse, she was riding, in deep water, at single anchor. The larboard watch was on deck, and it being now nearly midnight, they expected to be soon relieved. The lieutenant of the watch was slowly pacing his solitary walk on the starboard side of the quarter-deck, now stopping to regard with admiration, and perWhile Frank was young, he was a very haps devotion, the gorgeous moon almost in fine, fresh-coloured, straight, active, slender the zenith above him, and now looking in- fellow, with no graver fault about him than tently over the gangway into the clear ob- that of possessing a most inordinate appetite, scure of the green waters. He knew that the and of thriving too well upon it. At thirteen frigate was for foreign service, and that he years of age he was drafted on board the was now going to essay the ordeal of three Amelia, and there he had since remained unyears' chances of war, sickness, and ship-til the time of which we are now writing, wreck, and yet he felt a buoyancy above being just turned of six and-twenty. He had the sadness of his heart. The future was taken kindly to his lot, and was a thorough darkened to his eyes, yet he fed joyously up-able seaman and an accomplished man-ofon that aliment of human happiness-hope.

Loitering about the taffrail, the mate, the two midshipmen, and the younker of the watch, formed a young and cheerful group. Their conversation was blithe, and grew almost too loud for the ear of discipline; and every time the lieutenant turned, in the after part of his lonely promenade, the word of reprehension was ready on his tongue; but, at the same time, remembering their youth, and how very lately he was one of them, the reproof remained unuttered.

Being at single anchor and in the open seaway, the marines were not posted as sentinels around the vessel, but the sailors took their look-out stations as at sea. Every thing was quiet and dreamy. The monotonous tread of the lieutenant of the watch, and the subdued laugh of the knot of midshipmen, just gave a character to the stillness, marking it as human and civilized-a stillness totally distinct from that of the forest or the desert.

At length, the officer of the watch, all weary of the hushed spirit of the scene, shouted forth in a sharp, loud voice, "A good look-out on the starboard gangway?"

"Ay, ay, sir," was the gruff yet respectful answer, and then the refrain was taken up by the same voice—“A good look-out on the starboard bow."

war's man. He throve upon the king's allowance, and to that very thriving were imputable all his misfortunes. He had become preposterously fat. In order to mock the sapience of his godfathers, Flylightly had become so heavy, that it was very evident walking would soon be a difficulty to him. It was now three years since he was forced to give up his station in the foretop and descend to the forecastle, where, as we have before mentioned, being a thorough seaman, he still did or tried to do his duty. We must say for fat Frank, that he resisted his obesity with the vigour of a hero and the perseverance of a philosopher for a long while; but he had for some time given himself up, and he was determined to fatten and die as became a heart of oak.

Frank Flylightly had not been uneducated. He could write a good hand, understood the first rules of arithmetic, and could read fluently almost any work in the English language. As his disease grew upon him, his captain had got him appointed purser's steward; but this made the matter a thousand times worse. He increased in size visibly. In one little month he waddled aft on the quarter-deck, and panting under his carnal encumbrances, begged two favours

that he might be obliged to take daily six hours' spell at the hand-pump, and be again

so as to obscure the figure by his broad shoulders.

"No, no, no! Throw something over me, and take me on board."

allowed to attempt to do his duty on the fore-j castle. He had even some idea of petitioning for a round dozen or so at stated intervals, but he was restrained by his sense of dignity; for though he had served his Ma- But Frank Flylightly was not to be so eajesty more than twelve years, he could boast sily persuaded. He was conscious of having of never having been punished. So he final kept a villanous look-out, and disgrace at ly determined to have nothing whatever to best seemed to await any discovery. He also do with that remedy for obesity. It was un- was not quite free from superstitious fears fortunate, for there can be no doubt but that-so, whilst he did his best to screen the it would have proved a most efficacious

one.

When nature clothes the human frame with rullocks of fat, and hangs about the cheeks rosy pendules of indurated oil, she also covers up the spirit with a mantle of drowsiness, so that, if the patient wishes to keep his eyes open, he must be continually twitching and plucking at that mantle, or it will muffle him up, head and all. Frank Flylightly found this most pointedly to be his case. To be still, and to be asleep, was with him one and the same thing. Though fully aware of this failing, he was too proud to shirk his duty, and on this memorable night he had the look out on the starboard cathead, and slept.

No sooner had Frank, aroused by a friendly though severe pinch by a shipmate, passed round the necessary watch word, than placing his red, round countenance upon the hammock rail, and letting his heavy arms fall by his side, he was again in the land of dreams-a Flylightly in reality, sporting over flowery meads with all manner of fays and fairies. But this delectable state of existence he was not fated long to enjoy. In his imagination he had just "put half a circle round the globe" with a sportive flock of the winged existences, and was on the point of handing Queen Titania herself to a cool cup of dew from a violet, when he was suddenly recalled to his consciousness of fat and the forecastle, by something icy cold touching his nose. This operated on his eyes, and when they were fully opened they nearly fell out of their sockets with ntense staring.

object, he was determined to have a little more parley.

"Be you lad or lass?"

The object, with chattering teeth, said something that Frank could not make out; but the only words that he understood were to the effect that the supplicant was "dying, and nearly naked."

was

In the last announcement there something either in the plaintive manner in which it was made, or in the sailor's innate sense of modesty and humanity, that caused him to throw his pea jacket over the naked shoulders opposite to him, and a hurried instruction to the petitioner to wrap itself up, and come in quietly through the bow port-hole.

But the stranger had been seen, and in the bright moonlight very plainly too, by more than one prs on, but no notice was taken,as it was thought to be one of the ship's boys. Flylightly found himself in a scrape, and determined to examine the matter a little more before he made any outcry or discovery. His pea jacket being necessarily one of the widest dimensions, it completely hid the stranger, and as it crept on board, Frank whispered it to lie down in the deep shadow of the forebits, and, when he himself left the deck, to follow him closely.

All this the intruder punctually obeyed, and with a sagacity which made Frank think that it knew something about a ship, which was a little recommendation in its favour.

Frank Fly lightly slept no more that watch. All manner of fanciful ideas crowded upon his brain. He could not conceive how the Nearly in contact with his own roundest stranger could have come on board, for the of visages was placed a pale and most beau-frigate was anchored at least three miles tiful face, but whether male or female Frank could not determine. The clustering auburn locks were heavy with the sea water, whilst the full blue eyes glared intensely on our fat friend with a mingled expression of entreaty and fear. The arms and shoulders were of the purest white, but the rest of the body being outside the ship, we have not now any occasion to describe it.

The gaze between the forecastle man and the intruder was mutual and long, and a mysterious tremor was fast chilling the heart of the sailor. At length he could bear this suspense no more, but gasped out, "Speak, shipmate! Why don't you hail ?"

Hush!" said the figure, panting with fear and cold. "Hide me-for the love of your Redeemer, hide me!"

"You bain't a mermaid, be you?" said Frank, not too well assured, but standing up

from the shore; and, though it was a profound calm, the tide was running rapidly, and to swim off seemed impossible. Though he could not say much for his own look-out, had the apparition come out in any sort of craft, the other man at the larboard cat-head must have seen it It was an unfathomable mystery. But perhaps what most perplexed him was his cogitations as to the sex of the person that he had so clandestinely received on board his Majesty's ship the Amelia. His mind so much laboured in thought that the perspiration streamed down his jolly cheeks indeed, for two or three years he had nev er been so widely awake.

Midnight came. Twelve bells were struck, the larboard watch was relieved by the starboard, and as Frank prepared to go below down the fore hatchway, he gave the stranger a kick, who immediately rose, and

keeping close at the heels of its protector it | His bearing was lofty and careless, his had so singularly enlisted, both of them were speech fluent and sarcastic; and he was shortly lost in the gloom of the orlop deck. evidently a discoverer of weaknesses and erIn the middle of the middle watch-that rors, but too reckless to notice, or too proud is to say, just as the sentinel on the half-deck to reprove them. He had received the vahad struck four bells, and a London watch-rious reports of his officers with his usual man, if any had been awake at that hour, winning smile of urbanity, but still the sick would have bawled out past two o'clock and list had yet to be mentioned. At length it a starlight morning-the tide turned, and the was placed in his hands by the surgeon, Dr. watch was piped to weigh anchor. The ship's M'Quillet. It was almost a mere form, for company was so well disciplined, and each never was a crew more healthy. man on board of her so well knew and did his duty, that her officers could, on all ordinary occasions, work her with the watch on deck. Even the idlers were suffered to enjoy their idleness.

The anchor was plucked from its oozy bed, the sails loosed, topsails, courses, and top-gallant sails set, and the vessel's head looking down Channel, without occasioning so much noise as to awake the captain, who, as a matter of course, was called ere the manœuvre began, and was fast asleep again before the caller had well left the cabin.

Whilst the gallant ship, with varying winds, and a speed as various, was clearing the Chops of the Channel, but very few indeed knew the exact number of persons on board of her. About eleven o'clock on the second day since the commencement of our narrative, the ship's company was mustered at divisions, and a more healthy looking noble crew never towed a line along a frigate's decks. When they were piped down, the various officers still remained congregated on the quarter-deck, for the day being remarkably fine, and having polished themselves up (the phrase is theirs) to the mines, they were a little inclined to give each other the full benefit of the display. Courtesy and good humour were the order of the day; nothing was to be seen but smiles, or heard but compliments and mutual congratula

tions.

But the most conspicuous among them was the captain, Sir Hugh Eustace, a baronet by inheritance, and a knight commander of the Bath by his own gallantry. In his person and his character, he went far to show the world what really the perfection of a British naval commander was. But he was not perfect. He was the slave of passions and feeling, that hurried him, on rare and sudden occasions, into acts and paroxysms of action that hid him from the knowledge of his best friends and most enthusiastic admirers. But these sudden excesses were totally foreign to his profession. As an officer he was irreproachable; his evil was husbanded only to make wretched his private life; his rancour and his enmity were heaped to be vented on a concealed and an implacable foe.

But this is just now foreign to our purpose. Sr Hugh had attained the extreme of manly height. Though the expression of his countenance was usually that of stern repose, it was, in conversation, lighted up with a smile so amiable, that you wondered how it ever could have found place upon such features.

Sir Hugh glanced over the paper, and returning it with a smile, said, "I see you still have Francis Flylightly on the list. Yet, doctor, the man will do his duty."

"And I do mine, Sir Hugh. His is a bad case.

"With permission, Sir Hugh," chimed in the first lieutenant, "may I ask the good doctor one question?"

"Always happy, Mr. Flood, to answer any question of yours, that is answerable," said the surgeon, with a grin of conscious mental superiority.

66

Well, then, why do you continually place the fattest and the healthiest man in the ship on the sick list ?"

A better man," said the master, 66 never hove the lead."

"Because he is the fattest, and therefore not the healthiest. Look at me-am I fat?" said the doctor.

"Certainly the little to be seen of you is not fat."

66

Very well; I am glad you admit that. I, Doctor M'Quillet, am the health of this ship; yet I am not fat. What, Mr. Flood, is contrary to health must be disease. I would talk to you physiologically, but I must level my reason to your comprehension. I speak as a privileged person."

"I think so, indeed," said the captain.

"O we mind the doctor," said Mr. Flood, good-humouredly, "only so far as to take care to keep out of his clutches. But if this hearty Flylightly is so dangerously ill, what is the name of his disease; how is he afflicted?"

Now the doctor, in virtue of being a real Aberdeen doctor, always spoke slowlyvery slowly indeed, and the longer the word he used the more slowly he spoke it. The hard-a-weather master pricked up his ears for the answer-and he was not a little astonished when he heard it.

"Mr. Flood," said M'Quillet, gravely and deliberately, "the man is horribly tormented by Polysarchia."

"Ah!" said the master, slapping his thigh gently with his hand. "There never can happen any mischief to a man's body or soul but a woman is at the bottom of it." This trite aphorism was muttered but half audibly, but he was determined to profit by what he learned, so he took out his pocket-book, and very wisely made a note therein, that "Polly Archer" should never come on board, seeing that she killed the very best seamen, by inlicting upon them too much health.

During this conversation the unfortunate

victim of Polly Archer hove in sight. He displayed his broad proportions on the forecastle, and, as he occupied about as much space as three ordinary seamen, it was natural that he should attract the eyes of the gentlemen on the quarter-deck. The weather was warm, and Frank Flylightly's countenance was "total gules," an universal red, whilst he was continually mopping off the moisture collected upon it with the sleeve of his canvass shirt; but the task was a vain one. Seeing this, a shipmate very kindly handed him a dry swab. The gift was not taken as an insult, but most kindly, and applied to the purpose for which the joker intended it, with an innocence that was quite touching. This little act was observed from the quarter-deck, and the laugh became general, but as they laughed, the unfortunate victim of obesity swabbed on, and with a vigour that only served to increase the evil.

"We must really put him on shore," said Sir Hugh. "Let him 'lard the lean earth,' and not destroy the trim of the frigate." "He would not lard the lean earth long," said the doctor, quite positively. "The earth would soon take revenge on him, and lie as heavily upon him as he would tread upon her. Really he is certainly the heaviest man I ever saw afloat."

66

Polly Archer has much to answer for," said the master. 66 Spoilt the best seaman on board."

"What coast is Mr. Mildrum sounding now?" said the captain. "Mr. Flood, Mr. Flood, have you got the iron stanchions up under the quarter-deck, for I declare the mass is moving this way. Poor fellow !notwithstanding its enormous size, his countenance is open and right honest."

Frank Flylightly was the pet of his shipmates a mighty one, of course; but he was very dear to them, as he afforded the dullest among them the opportunity of making or repeating a joke, and his good temper had never yet been known to fail him.

"What takes fat Frank aft?" says one, as he rolls along. "We must shift the ballast," says another. "She's down by the starn already," says a third. "He is going to ask the skipper for eight men's allowance," says a fourth; and thus he good-naturedly runs the gauntlet of his laughing and frolicsome shipmates. But, for once, the amusing smile is not upon his countenance, and his brow is heavy with thought as well as perspiration. At length he reaches the break of the quarter-deck, and there he stands a monument of fat and incertitude. But Sir Hugh Eustace, excepting in his unfortunate moods, which we have before said pertained not to the sea, was kind at heart, and could be gentle of manners; so restraining his own, and thereby restraining his officers' laughter, he bade one of the midshipmen go and see what Frank wanted. The answer was, that he craved to speak to the captain.

"Come aft, my man, come aft," said the captain. "Why, Flylightly, you don't get thinner."

The poor fellow looked helplessly and mournfully, and shook his head severa times. "Ah! Sir Hugh, begging your hon our's pardon, but the king is too good to me and my officers are too good to me, and you: honour's honour is much too good to meand I can't help it-the fat will go on, and the sleep will come, your honour-it will-and your honour knows that I would have taken a round dozen every morning before breakfast, if that would have made me again do my duty as A. B. I would indeed, but for the disgrace.'

"It would not have done him the slightest good; I stake my medical knowledge upon it," said M'Quillet. "Nothing will do the man good. Should we phlebotomize and starve, we shall turn his polysarchia into an emphysema, and the patient will burst like a shell, and go off with a report. There is nothing, Sir Hugh, would do him the slightest good, but some downright vexation and annoyance."

66 Try him with half an hour of your conversation, doctor, and make his disease your subject."

"Problematical, Sir Hugh; very problem

atical."

"Please your honour," said Frank, lugging at his forelcck, and panting at the same time with the exertion of lifting his hand so high, “if a nighance and vexitation would lighten my ballast, I should be as sharp as a ballahoo schooner. I'm thinking, Sir Hugh, when your honour knows all, that you'll seize me up, and I shall get dozens without axing for them."

"Well, what have you done-of what been guilty?"

"Neglect of duty, and sleeping on my watch," said Frank, with unfeigned humility.

"I don't think I shall punish you for either; you may be on the sick list if you like; and your sleepiness, the doctor tells me, is the result of your disease. Why don't you invalide?"

At this advice Frank looked ruefully, and did nothing but slowly shake his head. At length he almost blubbered forth, "If your honour will but give me a berth in the beauty till I get me one in my hammock, and am tossed over the lee-side in the deep blue sea

for sartainly I can't last long, growing at this rate-but this is neither upwards nor downwards-you don't know the worst of me."

"Well, out with it."

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At these words a light figure sprang up the | Hugh ?" were the brief and almost haughladder of the main deck, and coming quickly ty words. aft, threw off a large greatcoat, and stood before Sir Hugh and his officers.

"It is a woman!" was the universal remark, although the figure was neatly dressed as a ship-boy.

For some moments no one spoke-for every one was struck with the calm and resolute beauty of the stranger. At length the unknown spoke: "Do you know me, Sir

"I do not," was the ready reply, made in a tone of the utmost astonishment.

66

May I speak with you alone?" "Come into my cabin," said the captain; and they disappeared from the view of the wondering officers.

END OF PART THE FIRST.

THE JOYS OF SONG.

I.

SPIRIT of Song! whose haunts are near the stream
Where willows dip their leaf-points, where the fly
Dimples the silver, and mocks merrily

The trout slow-leaping-in the setting beam
That hangs on yonder crag, whose rough sides seem
Intensely burnished gold, or when the eye

Of mortal pierces not some canopy

Beneath whose leafy gloom thou lov'st to dream!
Thou hast thy home where'er the land profane
As yet hath left old Nature's guileless sway
Untouch'd and undefiled; thy far-spread reign
Is dear as life, and boundless as the day!
Propitious-come!-in this sweet place and hour
We'll burn devoted incense to thy power.

II.

Out of the fulness of a hardened heart

Speaks the false tongue, that, says the poet's lay,
Unfits its singer for the beaten way

Of earthly duty; though the lyre impart

High thoughts, and o'er his soul though wishes dart
That spurn the cold realities of clay,

Though purer light invest with fair array

For him the puny pageantry of art;

He views Life's landscape with a roseate glass,
He magnifies the good, and weeps to see
The tangled feet in Sin's unseen decoy.

He pities, loves, forgives ;-no grief shall pass,
And he withhold the tear of sympathy,-

No act of virtue shine, and he forget to joy,

III.

Spirit of Poesy! thy sparkling spring,

The pure Choaspes of the lords of earth,

Flows o'er with hope, and joy, and chasten'd mirth;
Thou deck'st thy priests with health; no human thing
Can damp the ardour of their love, nor fling

A single cloud to mar the glorious birth
Of their unending day. No pinching dearth,
Thy garden slopes, spring-garlanded, dare wring.
Why sleeps thy lyre, and at thy temple gate
No list'ning myriads hang upon thy voice?
Why does the mantle of the elder time

On no young form descend, and animate
Some half-reluctant lip, to bid rejoice

The fainting famish'd ear with notes sublime?

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