"How do you mean by plenty of ballast?"
"I don't mean, Mr Simple, a broad bow and square hulk. You know very well that if a vessel has not ballast, she's bottom up in no time. Now, what keeps a woman stiff under her canvas is her modesty."
"Very true; but it's a rare commodity on the beach."
"And why, Mr Simple? because liquor is more valued. Many a good man has found it to be his bane; and as for a woman, when once she takes to it, she's like a ship without a rudder, and goes right before the wind to the devil. Not that I think a man ought not to take a nor-wester or two, when he can get them. Rum was not given by God Almighty only to make the niggers dance, but to make all our hearts glad; neither do I see why a woman is to stand out neither; what's good for Jack can't hurt Poll; only there is a medium, as they say, in all things, and half-an-half is quite strong enough."
"I should think it was," replied I, laughing.
"But don't be letting me prevent you from keeping a look-out, Mr
Simple.—You, Hoskins, you're half a point off the wind. Luff you may.—
I think, Mr Simple, that Captain O'Brien didn't pick out the best man,
when he made Tom Alsop a quarter-master in my place."
"Why, he is a very steady, good man, Swinburne."
"Yes, so he is; but he has natural defects, which shouldn't be overlooked. I doubt if he can see so far as the head of the mainsail."
"I was not aware of that."
"No, but I was. Alsop wants to sarve out his time for his pension, and when he has sarved, you see if, when the surgeons examine him, they don't invalid him, as blind as a bat. I should like to have him as gunner's mate, and that's just what he's fit for. But, Mr Simple, I think we shall have some bad weather. The moon looks greasy, and the stars want snuffing. You'll have two reefs in the topsails afore morning. There's five bells striking. Now I'll turn in; if I didn't keep half the first, and half the morning watch, I shouldn't sleep all the night. I miss my regular watch very much, Mr Simple—habit's everything —and I don't much fancy a standing bed-place, it's so large, and I feel so cold of my sides. Nothing like a hammock, after all. Good-night, Mr Simple."