there; for, unlike many scamps, he had none of the qualities of a sailor,—­ he was ``not of the stuff that they make sailors of.’’ He used to hold long yarns with the crew, and talk against the captain, and play with the boys, and relax discipline in every way.  This kind of conduct always makes the captain suspicious, and is never pleasant, in the end, to the men; they preferring to have an officer active, vigilant, and distant as may be with kindness.  Among other bad practices, he frequently slept on his watch, and, having been discovered asleep by the captain, he was told that he would be turned off duty if he did it again.  To prevent his sleeping on deck, the hen-coops were ordered to be knocked up, for the captain never sat down on deck himself, and never permitted an officer to do so.

The second night after crossing the equator, we had the watch from eight till twelve, and it was ``my helm’’ for the last two hours.  There had been light squalls through the night, and the captain told Mr. Foster, who commanded our watch, to keep a bright lookout.  Soon after I came to the helm, I found that he was quite drowsy, and at last he stretched himself on the companion and went fast asleep.  Soon afterwards the captain came softly on deck, and stood by me for some time looking at the compass.  The officer at length became aware of the captain’s presence, but, pretending not to know it, began humming and whistling to himself, to show that he was not asleep, and went forward, without looking behind him, and ordered the main royal to be loosed.  On turning round to come aft, he pretended surprise at seeing the master on deck.  This would not do.  The captain was too ``wide awake’’ for him, and, beginning upon him at once, gave him a grand blow-up, in true nautical style:  ``You’re a lazy, good-for-nothing rascal; you’re neither man, boy, soger, nor sailor! you’re no more than a thing aboard a vessel! you don’t earn your salt! you’re worse than a Mahon soger!’’ and other still more choice extracts from the sailor’s vocabulary.  After the poor fellow had taken this harangue, he was sent into his state-room, and the captain stood the rest of the watch himself.

At seven bells in the morning, all hands were called aft, and told that Foster was no longer an officer on board, and that we might choose one of our own number for second mate.  It is not uncommon for the captain to make this offer, and it is good policy, for the crew think themselves the choosers, and are flattered by it, but have to obey, nevertheless.  Our crew, as is usual, refused to take the responsibility of choosing a man of whom we would never be able to complain, and left it to the captain.  He picked out an active and intelligent young sailor, born on the banks of the Kennebec, who had been several Canton voyages, and proclaimed him in the following manner:  ``I choose Jim Hall; he’s your second mate.  All you’ve got to do is, to obey him as you would me; and remember that he is Mr. Hall.’’ Foster went forward into the forecastle as a common sailor, and lost the handle to his name, while young fore-mast Jim became Mr. Hall, and took up his quarters in the land of knives and forks and tea-cups.