impressed with the image intended to be presented to him; he required three different versions, or paraphrases, of the same story or observation, and to these he had three different expletives or ejaculations.  These were hum! eh! and ah!  The first denoted attention; the second, part comprehension; and the third, assent and entire approval; to mark which more distinctly, the last syllable was drawn out to an immoderate length, and accompanied by a sort of half laugh.

I shall give one instance of our colloquial pastime.  His lordship, after we had each taken up our quarters for the night, on the soft dry hay, thus began: 

“I say,”—­a pause.

“My lord?”

“What would they say in England, at our taking up such quarters?”

“I think, my lord, that as far as regards myself, they would say nothing; but as far as regards your lordship, they would say it was very indifferent accommodation for a nobleman.”

“Hum!”

This I knew was the signal for a new version.  “I was observing, my lord, that a person of your rank, taking up his quarters in a barn, would excite suspicion among your friends in England.”

“Eh?” says his lordship.

That did not do—­either your lordship’s head or mine is very thick, thinks I. I’ll try again, though dying to go to sleep.  “I say, my lord, if the people in England knew what a good sailor you are, they would be surprised at nothing you did; but those who know nothing, would think it odd that you should be contented with such quarters.”

“Ah!” said his lordship, triumphantly.

What further observations he was pleased to make that night I know not, for I fell fast asleep, and did not awake till the cocks and hens began to fly down from their roosts, and make a confounded clamour for their breakfasts, when his lordship jumped up, gave himself a good shake, and then gave me another of a different sort:  it announced the purpose, however, of restoring me to that reason, of which the cackling of the poultry had only produced the incipient signs.

“Come, rouse out, you d----- lazy chap,” said my captain.  “Do you mean
to sleep all day? we have got plenty to do.”

“Ay, ay, my lord,” said I. So up I jumped, and my toilet was completed in the same time, and by the same operation, as that of a Newfoundland dog, namely, a good shake.

A large party of the ship’s company came on shore with the carpenter, bringing with them every implement useful in cutting down trees and building log-houses.  Such was to be our occupation, in order to house these poor emigrants.  Our men began to clear a patch of land, by cutting down a number of pine-trees, the almost exclusive natives of the wood, and, having selected a spot for the foundation, we placed four stems of trees in a parallelogram, having a deep notch in each end, mutually to fit and embrace each other.  When the walls, by this repeated operation, were high enough, we laid on the rafters, and covered the roof with boughs of the fir, and the bark of the birch-tree, filling the interstices with moss and mud.  By practice, I became a very expert engineer, and with the assistance of thirty or forty men, I could build a very good house in a day.