of the tyrant Murphy.  I was let into all the secrets of the mess in which the youngsters were placed by the captain to be instructed and kept in order.  Alas! what instruction did we get but blasphemy?  What order were we kept in, except that of paying our mess, and being forbidden to partake of those articles which our money had purchased?  My blood boiled when they related all they had suffered, and I vowed I would sooner die than submit to such treatment.

The hour of bed-time arrived.  I was instructed how to get into my hammock, and laughed at for tumbling out on the opposite side.  I was forced to submit to this pride of conscious superiority of these urchins who could only boast of a few months’ more practical experience than myself, and who, therefore, called me a greenhorn.  But all this was done in good nature; and after a few hearty laughs from my companions, I gained the centre of my suspended bed, and was very soon in a sound sleep.  This was only allowed to last till about four o’clock in the morning, when down came the head of my hammock, and I fell to the deck, with my feet still hanging in the air, like poor Sally, when she caught the crab.  Stunned and stupefied by the fall, bewildered by the violent concussion and the novelty of all around me, I continued in a state of somnambulism, and it was some minutes before I could recollect myself.

The marine sentinel at the gun-room door seeing what had happened, and also espying the person to whom I was indebted for this favour, very kindly came to my assistance.  He knotted my lanyard, and restored my hammock to its place; but he could not persuade me to confide myself again to such treacherous bedposts, for I thought the rope had broken; and so strongly did the fear of another tumble possess my mind, that I took a blanket, and lay down on a chest at some little distance, keeping a sleepless eye directed to the scene of my late disaster.

This was fortunate; for not many minutes had elapsed, when Murphy, who had been relieved from the middle watch, came below, and seeing my hammock again hanging up, and supposing me in it, took out his knife and cut it down.  “So then,” said I to myself, “it was you who invaded my slumbers, and nearly dashed my brains out, and have now made the second attempt.”  I vowed to Heaven that I would have revenge; and I acquitted myself of that vow.  Like the North American savage, crouching lest he should see me, I waited patiently till he had got into his hammock, and was in a sound sleep.  I then gently pushed a shot-case under the head of his hammock, and placed the corner of it so as to receive his head; for had it split his skull I should not have cared, so exasperated was I, and so bent on revenge.  Subtle and silent, I then cut his lanyard:  he fell, and his head coming in contact with the edge of the shot-case, he gave a deep groan, and there he lay.  I instantly retreated to my chest and blanket, where I pretended to snore, while the sentinel, who, fortunately for me, had seen Murphy cut me down the first time, came with his lanthorn, and seeing him apparently dead, removed the shot-case out of the way, and then ran to the sergeant of marines, desiring him to bring the surgeon’s assistant.