“‘Not the slightest!’ said Virgo.
“‘Strange—unkimmonly strange! How long ha’ you been awake?’ inquired her father.
“‘About an hour,’ replied my angel. ‘I felt a little better to-day, and was thinking of getting up when you entered.’
“I heard the old man grope under the bed, and knew that he was exploring every corner, grumbling and swearing at me at a rate it did my heart good to hear.
“‘Unkimmonly strange!’ he exclaimed, ‘and I shall get sent to the right about if I can’t tell how he’s bolted.’
“Then I heard him draw aside the curtains, and I lay as still as a rock.
“‘What do you want, father?’ cried Virgo, very angrily. ‘It’s ridiculous for you to imagine he can be here.’
“‘Unkimmonly strange!’ grumbled out the brute; and having satisfied himself that his prisoner was not in the room, he shuffled out of it, growling like a she bear deprived of her cubs. I could feel Virgo’s little heart beating violently as she listened to the retreating sounds. Neither of us moved for several minutes. At last, convinced that the coast was clear, I raised my head from the clothes, and observed her face covered with blushes; but as soon as I moved she made a spring and left me in the bed alone.
“‘You must remain here till you hear me leave the room,’ said she, drawing the curtains round me; ‘and when I lock the door, change the clothes you have on for those you will find laid out for you.’ I promised obedience, and with a winning smile she left me to my own reflections in a pretty considerable puzzlement concerning the whole affair. Directly I knew she was gone, I jumped out of my snuggery, and looked for the change of rigging she had mentioned. May I be considerably spiflicated if it wasn’t a woman’s dress! I must say I felt but little inclined to the thing; but, thinking that it might be the only chance I had for getting out of prison, I stripped, and began putting on the first thing that came to hand. It was a sort of shirt, and yet it wasn’t a shirt. It didn’t look like the shirt of Jew, Turk, or Christian. However, after a deal of manouvring, I slipped it on, and the first thing I discovered was that both sleeves shortened sail considerably, and though I tried to haul up the collar to my neck, I found it wouldn’t come above my shoulders any how, but hung down with an ugly flap afore and abaft. Well, the next thing I put my head through was something of a similar nature, only it came up a little higher and fell down a little lower, and was braced up more tight about the body. After that, I got hold of the strangest piece of stuff that ever I overhawled. It was shaped something like a jacket without sleeves or collar, buttons or button-holes, set round with a number of slight stiffish spars, one of which was much broader in the beam than the others, and there was a running line going through two rows of holes that kept the thing pretty smartly together. I found out that there were places for the arms to go in, and I managed to get it then over my shoulders. Then I tugged away at the running line till I had got it through all the holes, and by pulling and hauling, twisting and turning, I made all fast; but the spars pinched me most confoundedly, and the big one stood out astern of my back bone in the oddest manner possible. Then there were a few more things into which I found my way more easily, and when I was regularly rigged out, I took a look at myself at the glass; and I will say, a more ridiculous craft never ventured afloat that what I appeared to be.
“I was amusing myself with the figure I cut, when I heard a footstep—the key turned in the lock, and Virgo entered, fastening the door after her. As soon as she clapped eyes upon me, they began to twinkle famously, and, without any ceremony, she opened upon me as complete a laugh as ever I heard. And she had good reason, for I’d got a hump on my back as big as a dromedary’s, owing to my having put the thing with the spars on stern foremost; and I’d managed to twist every thing out of its proper place, because I was ignorant of the right way of putting them on. Well, she made no more to do, but just took me to pieces as if I’d been a baby, and put every thing to rights, laughing all the time; yet as modest as any she creature that ever lived. Then she made me wash my face; and afterwards she combed my hair, curled it, and put a sort of turban on my head; and then, with a triumphant smile, she bade me look in the glass. I did’nt know myself. I looked as complete a girl as ever walked in petticoats. My complexion had been rather browned by the sun, and my limbs had little of the feminine about them; but notwithstanding these things I appeared more womanish than previously I thought it possible I could have been made. As yet I had no whiskers, and my beard did’nt give me any particular deal of trouble; so that, on that score, there was little that could betray that I was sailing under false colours.