paying me for the job, I'll pay you. What! are you too proud to earn a matter? Come, come, give us your flipper; only let me tell you your fortune, and I'll put more in it than you expect or deserve."

The old lady's avarice overcame her repugnance, and at length, with a sly and cautious look, she stretched out her shrivelled arm, and opened that ramification of ill-covered tendons and bones that served her for a hand. I would not record the disagreeable and disgraceful act that ensued, were it not necessary to my short tale. When Mr. Saveounce had got the gipsy's hand fairly in his own, to use Shakspeare's phrase," he voided his rheum" into it, and, closing it suddenly, broke out into a horse-laugh of derision at the exasperated fortuneteller.

But his triumph at the success of this unmanly practical joke was not long. The old woman sprang from him with the energy of youthof youth! it was the energy of a demon. She grew suddenly straight and tall, and after standing thus for a moment, at a height that probably she had never assumed for years, she instantly dropped, first upon her knees, and in that position, after loading him with every term that was opprobrious, solemnly called down God's curses upon him. Her abuse and her maledictions, though vulgar and not to be repeated, were startling for their energy. The recreant blenched before her, and

deprecatingly began to say, "Good mother"

"Mother to such as you!-I'd sooner be mother to the toadto every thing horrible and unwholesome-how dare you talk of mothers? Your own was an outcast and an abomination-a broken and a defiled vessel that was trod down into the earth by the feet of the multitude; yet all too good for you. By this token I dishonour her grave:" and, going upon all-fours, she cleansed her soiled hand upon the grassy sod.

"But for your miserable self, you plunderer of the dead-you common robber," she continued-" you cheater of the sailor-I tell you, that before you are a week older you'll swing, like a felon as you are, at the yard-arm; and I call on Heaven to witness the truth of what I say. Get you a parson as fast as you can, and pray, pray, pray and see if God will forgive a wretch like you. He may, but I will never— never. Prepare for the yard-arm-repent and swing-repent and swing-the yard-arm, I say, remember the yard-arm." And as she hobbled off, her muttered and mingled curses and threats were heard long after a turning of the lane had concealed her from our view. Mr. Saveounce looked very blank, and not at all at his ease. Mr. Flintstones, the gunner, who was a Scotchman, and not a little superstitious, began very seriously to advise the purser to reform his life, converse with a clergyman, read his Bible, and set his house in order; for he assured him such prophecies from such an old woman were never uttered in vain. The young middy, between bursts of laughter which he neither could nor wished to control, wanted immediately to enter into a negotiation with "the devoted" for several and sundry of his traps; inflicting upon him the common-place observation, that he could not carry them with him into the other world. All this baiting was annoying enough; but when the honest, good-natured, simpleminded master's mate, Mr. Swimkin, began to comfort him, it was unendurable. He commenced pawing and fondling him with his fat hands,

and, with the tears standing in his eyes, began thus, in all sincerity, to condole with him.

"So, poor Saveounce, you'll be hung at last."

"Go to h- with you.'

“Ah, Saveounce, my dear Saveounce, think of your precious soul. Don't speak in that careless way of the abode of the wicked. Ony think! and so many happy hours that we have spent together! When you are gone, who will sing me, on Saturday night, Some say we venturous die-hards.' I hope to God, Saveounce, you won't die hard." "You be d-d, Spooney-chops!"

"There! how profligate he is! and so near his latter end too. Saveounce, my dear Saveounce, I do believe, whatever all the world may say to the contrary, that pursers have souls to be saved. If there is anything heavy on your mind, my dear fellow, out with it-make a clean breast of it-die easy, and trust to a merciful Providence."

If you don't clap a stopper on your canting nonsense, I'll flatten in that snivelling jib.'

"There now, again, how angry he is because he's sure to be hung. Rather, my good, dear fellow, give me a list of your relations that you would wish to be written to, after the fatal event. I'll break the news to them with all possible delicacy-I will, upon my soul."

The purser stamped, gnashed his teeth, and thrust his fist in Swimkin's face, but he could not speak for passion. The master's-mate only shook his head, with a bland smile of commiseration, and continued thus to enact the consoler.

"My dear Saveounce, seeing the state that you are in, I can put up with anything from you now. Why, you might even strike me, if it wasn't very hard, seeing it is so near the last time." And then, laying his hand most affectionately on his victim's shoulder, the tears at last brimming over from his large and lacklustre eyes, he brought his canticle of comfort to a conclusion in these words: "Dear, excellent Saveounce, don't disappoint me; for the sake of your shipmates be hung for something manly and spirited, such as pitching your commanding officer overboard, poking the port-admiral's eye out, or, if it be for a gallant highway robbery, I shouldn't much mind. Fine fellows, very fine fellows indeed, my dear Saveounce, have been hung for saying 'Stand;' but don't you, pray don't you swing for murder, or for forgery; and for the honour of the Wagtails, I beseech you, don't let it be for".

The enraged purser would not give him time to finish his admonition, but drove it back into his teeth with a violent blow in the mouth. This was promptly returned by the comforter. The gunner immediately, without a word being spoken, inducted himself as second to the purser; the midshipman naturally taking the same office for the master's-mate. The two seconds performed their ex-officio duties but indifferently, from excess of laughter.

But there was to be another witness to the scene, and that was the old gipsy. Standing on a high bank in a field beneath the hedge, near which the combatants were pommeling each other, the woman frantically tossed up her arms with mirth at the strife below her; and at every blow that the heavy fist of Swimkin dealt upon his older yet weaker opponent, she screeched forth an unnatural laugh, and clapped

her skinny hands. "Well done!" she exclaimed, " my fair one—well stricken, my loved one by the ladies. Joy, joy, my young lieutenant, that blow was for me-hurrah, my young commander! See how the insulter of age staggers-fell the mocker of old women to the earth again, my noble captain! See, see, how the coward reels—that is his own base blood that he is treading into the mire! He spat upon meone blow, one hearty blow for that, admiral-well done! well done! I am revenged-he a man to brave the ocean!-see, he has swooned like a sick girl." And the old hag spoke truly, for, in less than a minute and a half, the mild and blubber-lipped Swimkin had, to use a pugilistic expression, for a time, "knocked the life out of him."

The flow of benevolence returned to Swimkin's heart with the fall of his opponent. He hung over him with as much fondness as if he had been his unoffending brother; he accused himself of everything that was cruel and inhuman, and pathetically appealed to the gipsy, who stood grinning above the group, for her assistance.

At length Saveounce revived, but sadly bruised about the counteHe said but little, but his look expressed everything that was malevolent, and his mental agony was not a little increased by his being compelled to endure the mockings of the ragged Pythoness who stood jabbering above him. He repulsed with faint tones, but with the language of burning hate, all the affectionate advances and bear-like fondlings of his conqueror; and being supported by the gunner and the middy, prepared to steal, by the most unfrequented by-ways, into the town. As they turned to depart, the good-natured Swimkin made one last appeal to the implacable hag to take the ban of hanging from off his shipmate.

"No, no, fair and happy Sir," she screamed out; "all good fortune is for you-he must hang, he must hang, he must hang! The boatswain is ashore, at this very moment, drawing the rope from the dockyard with which he will swing-he must hang!"

Weak and beaten as was the purser, this last malediction seemed to have given him new strength, for he picked up a huge stone and sent it whizzing at his denouncer's head, with what effect is uncertain; for that old hooded head and red cloak suddenly disappeared, and were seen no more. The master's-mate always afterwards averred that she sank into the earth; and when subsequently, through a train of good luck, and a perseverance in good conduct, he became lieutenant, commander, post-captain, and rear-admiral, at each of these successive appointments, he very devoutly thanked the gipsy. We believe that our friend is still living, as good and almost as simple as ever.

However, we have only to do with him as a master's-mate, and the fighter of a yard-arm duel, who, we will suppose, is now following into Portsmouth, but respectfully at some distance behind, his brother officers, very melancholy, and much lamenting his hard fate that had compelled him so excellently to beat a person of whom he was very fond as a companion, and whom fate was so soon to take from him by an act of suspension.

In the dusk of the evening the purser got on board in a shore-boat, stole down below, and immediately reported himself sick, in order to afford time for his blackened eyes and discoloured visage to resume their natural ugliness.

The athletic, fat, and blubber-lipped, blue-eyed master's-mate went on board the next day unmarked, and unhurt save in his mind, which was much pained that Mr. Saveounce should still continue in deadly enmity with him; but even this could not materially disturb the equa nimity of his temper; so he went on doing his duty, smiling on every body, thinking life a very pleasant privilege, and life in a very miserable wet brig not only a pleasant but a high one. Shame on those who could force such a character into a duel!

sea.

Three days after these occurrences, and before Mr. Saveounce's discolourations had become matter of history (we like a sounding phrase), his Majesty's sloop of war, the Water-Wagtail, was reported ready for Captain Hilburn was that day to dine with the Admiral on board the flag-ship, and the signal was to be made for the Wagtail to lie-to in the offing, so that, when the skipper's skin should be well filled with wine, it would only be necessary to fill the Wagtail's sails with wind, stand in, pick up the captain in his gig, and then make all sail with the despatches. All this was a very pretty arrangement, com→ bining comfort with a zeal for the service; for though the country must be served with energy and abandon, captains, at least, must dine.

This was in the merry month of May. About two o'clock, Captain Hilburn, seeing his vessel under weigh, and every sail properly trimmed, and every rope hauled taut, pushed off, first for the Admiral's office on shore, and afterwards with the Admiral himself, on board the Royal William, to dine! for it so happened that that day several distinguished characters were on a visit to Portsmouth, and, being landsmen, they thought that a dinner would eat much better afloat at Spithead, in a cooped-up cabin, than in the salle à manger of the commander in-chief's mansion in High-street, Portsmouth. There is no accounting for taste.

Now, as on this beautiful afternoon the Water-Wagtail, under easy sail, stood on and off on the coast of the Isle of Wight, the first lieutenant, with a keen eye to the cleanliness of the quarter-deck, thought he discovered in some broken pieces of rock that lay scattered over a sandy little cove on the island some excellent materials for holystones. As the skipper was showing his zeal for the service by hobbing and nobbing with the admiral's guests, with the desperate air of a determined officer, the first lieutenant thought that he also would show his zeal for the service, though not in such high emprize or before such distinguished spectators. He therefore turned the hands up, "out barge," triced up the yard-tackles, squared the yards, and soon had her off the booms on the water. She was the largest boat allowed to the brig, and pulled sixteen oars. When she lay alongside manned, the first luff sent for Mr. Swimkin, good, pliant Mr. Swimkin, and thus addressed him :

"You see that sandy little cove, Mr. Swimkin; pull in there with the barge, and if those fragments of rock that you see lying about the beach be at all fit for holystones, bring off a good number of them. The sand, too, if it is not too coarse and muddy, would be very serviceable-some thirty or forty buckets-full will be enough. But Mr. Swimkin, mind”—and he held up a cautionary forefinger-"the tide is running out like a midshipman who has bilked a grog-shop" (the simile was not generous), so keep the barge afloat, and by no means allow a single man to leave her."

To all this the broad-featured master's mate touched his hat, and said, "Ay, ay, Sir," which being construed into English, means that the command shall be punctually obeyed.

A mattock for breaking the rock, and a couple of buckets with which to collect the sand, having been handed into the barge, the brig stood in as far as was prudent towards the land, and cast her off. The provident first having tacked off shore, began to think of his own provender, and that il faut diner was a maxim as applicable to lieutenants as to captains, even if the applicability could be carried to no lower a grade in the service.

People on shore, perhaps, do not know what holystones are, to pro→ cure which, this formidable expedition of seventeen men and an officer was despatched. I might here, were I not too generous, fling a heap of stones at my readers' heads, and, becoming geological, talk of primary, secondary, tertiary, and transition rocks; but I won't; I will even resist the temptation thus offered me of battering down other people's systems, to insinuate that I have a better one of my own. Of all this I will do nothing, but merely state that a holystone is a petrified scrubbing-brush, and called "holy," because those who use it are compelled to go on their knees before it.

Having now explained what are holystones, I must be allowed a few moments for congratulation, and be permitted to look around me with a self-satisfied air. I have brought everybody into a state of enjoyment. At this present moment, Captain Hilburn is doing, with a concentration of energy almost terrible, the agreeable to the ladies in the admiral's drawing-room. He has just told one little Miss of sixteen that she need not be alarmed at the length and weight of his sword, for that he is too much of a gentleman to draw it before ladies. This he will maintain is a mixture of badinage and raillery; and he is now saying to a more matured beauty something about the happiness that fate reserves for that man who is destined to "swing in the same hammock with her ;" and this he considers as the acme of elegant gallantry. Your rough sailor of the last century, in female society, was not easily ridiculed out of his bashfulness; but when you had beaten his reserve he always fled for protection under the batteries of impudence. When he was quizzed for saying nothing at all, he generally corrected himself by stopping at nothing in what he said.

If the captain was happy, the first lieutenant was far from miserable. On deck, he had been zealous for his Majesty's service, below, he was zealous for his own. He had a clear conscience and an excellent casebottle of Jamaica. Thus, as he measured the hours, not by glasses of sand, but of strong grog, the time fleeted joyously past; and, at every half-hour the sentry struck the bell, he confessed that he was adding another portion to his stock of human happiness.

Mr. Swimkin and his seventeen men,- -were they happy? Oh, too gloriously happy! but, as the poet saith, "with bliss too mighty long to last;" for the tide both of prosperity and salt-water had left them high and dry, though, considering the quantity of rum and water they had all and several of them drunk, their being dry was certainly a minor sort of a miracle. It was a warm afternoon, and the men had worked well; yet not a soul would the conscientious master's-mate suffer to start from the boat until the rocks were broken up, the sand collected, and the