THE NIGHT-BLOWING STOCK. "COME! look at this plant, with its narrow pale leaves, Thinly studded with flowers-yes, with flowers-there they are, "So, you ask, why I keep it, the little mean thing! Why I stick it up here just in sight? 'Tis a fancy of mine.' "A strange fancy!" you say, "No accounting for tastes-In this instance you may, For the flower-but I'll tell you to-night. "Some six hours hence, when the Lady Moon When the twinkling stars dance silently "Then meet me again in this casement niche, "Well, we're met here again; and the moonlight sleeps On the sea and the bastion'd wall; And the flowers there below-how the night wind brings "But there's one," say you, "sweeter than all!" "Which is it? the myrtle or jessamine, Or their sovereign lady, the rose? What! neither!"-" Oh no, 'tis some other flower, "Far sweeter! and where, think you, groweth the plant That exhaleth such perfume rare?" "Look about, up and down, but take care, or you'll break With your elbow that poor little thing that's so weak.""Why, 'tis that smells so sweet, I declare!" "Ah ha! is it that ?-have you found out now All is not gold that glitters, you know; "There are human flowers, full many, I trow, "But move one of those to some quiet spot, From the mid-day sun's broad glare, Where domestic peace broods with dove-like wing, May not yield sweet fragrance there. "Or wait till the days of trial come, The dark days of trouble and woe, When they shrink and shut up, late so bright in the sun; And see if 'twill serve you so. "And judge not again at a single glance, Nor pass sentence hastily. There are many good things in this world of ours; Many sweet things, and rare-weeds that prove precious flowers, C. has a trifling complaint on the score of inaccuracy to make against the Compositor who set "Gracious Rain." An alteration in the tense of a verb, at the beginning, which threw the rest of the poem into bad grammar; and the alteration of " upfurled" into "unfurled," in another part, reversing the sense of the stanza in which that word occurred. THE MAN-OF-WAR'S MAN. The scrapers and the holy stones have now been keenly plied, And now she breasts, so smart and gay, the rippling, roaring tide, Her ports unshipt, her carronades run out on every side; That, dn me, if I don't, and I'll do it too with pride, EDWARD had now, according to the most correct guardship phraseology, got "a ship of his own," being at length regularly enrolled on a vessel's books; and he had soon to experience the mighty difference of labour that exists between the lazy-lagging regular-timed motions of a guardo, and the unremitting and lively activity exert ed on board a vessel of war preparing for sea. The launch of the Namur had no sooner delivered over her live cargo to the first lieutenant of the Tottumfog, than he instantly ordered them to stow their luggage in midships on the booms, and immediately set them to work in scraping the pitch from the vessel's decks and sides, outside and in, with which the caulkers had so liberally bedaubed her. This done, several days were next spent in getting in and stowing her water-casks, her guns, shot, and other warlike apparatus, to gether with cables, sails, spare rigging, and other stores, whether for the gunner, boatswain, or carpenter. Provisions and water followed; the riggers were busy getting the rigging over the mast-heads; all hands were on the stretch while day-light lasted; nor was it until the painters began their de corations, that her lively ship's company had the smallest breathing from the hardest and most fatiguing toil. All this strife of work arose from a circumstance by no means uncommon among naval commanders. While refitting their vessels at any station, they come necessarily under the command of the Port-Admiral of the place; who, from the frequency of his signals for the attendance of the captain, or various other minor officers, is very often troublesome enough; thus not only keeping the commanders continually upon the alert, but confining them on board during his official hours, in case their attendance should be required. This, however rigor THE NIGHT-BLOWING STOCK. "COME! look at this plant, with its narrow pale leaves, And its tall, slim, delicate stem, Thinly studded with flowers-yes, with flowers-there they are, Don't you see, at each joint there's a little brown star? But in truth, there's no beauty in them." So, you ask, why I keep it, the little mean thing! 'Tis a fancy of mine."-" A strange fancy!" you say, "Some six hours hence, when the Lady Moon When the twinkling stars dance silently And the heavy night dews fall, "Then meet me again in this casement niche, "Well, we're met here again; and the moonlight sleeps And the flowers there below-how the night wind brings "But there's one," say you, 66 sweeter than all!" "Which is it? the myrtle or jessamine, What! neither!"-" Oh no, 'tis some other flower, "Far sweeter! and where, think you, groweth the plant That exhaleth such perfume rare?" "Look about, up and down, but take care, or you'll break With your elbow that poor little thing that's so weak.""Why, 'tis that smells so sweet, I declare!" "Ah ha! is it that ?-have you found out now All is not gold that glitters, you know; "There are human flowers, full many, I trow, "But move one of those to some quiet spot, From the mid-day sun's broad glare, Where domestic peace broods with dove-like wing, May not yield sweet fragrance there. "Or wait till the days of trial come, The dark days of trouble and woe, When they shrink and shut up, late so bright in the sun; And see if 'twill serve you so. "And judge not again at a single glance, Nor pass sentence hastily. There are many good things in this world of ours; Many sweet things, and rare-weeds that prove precious flowers, Little dreamt of by you or me." C. C. has a trifling complaint on the score of inaccuracy to make against the Compositor who set "Gracious Rain." An alteration in the tense of a verb, at the beginning, which threw the rest of the poem into bad grammar; and the alteration of " upfurled" into "unfurled," in another part, reversing the sense of the stanza in which that word occurred. THE MAN-OF-WAR'S MAN. The scrapers and the holy stones have now been keenly plied, And now she breasts, so smart and gay, the rippling, roaring tide, Her ports unshipt, her carronades run out on every side; That, d-n me, if I don't, and I'll do it too with pride, EDWARD had now, according to the most correct guardship phraseology, got "a ship of his own," being at length regularly enrolled on a vessel's books; and he had soon to experience the mighty difference of labour that exists between the lazy-lagging regular-timed motions of a guardo, and the unremitting and lively activity exert ed on board a vessel of war preparing for sea. The launch of the Namur had no sooner delivered over her live cargo to the first lieutenant of the Tottumfog, than he instantly ordered them to stow their luggage in midships on the booms, and immediately set them to work in scraping the pitch from the vessel's decks and sides, outside and in, with which the caulkers had so liberally bedaubed her. This done, several days were next spent in getting in and stowing her water-casks, her guns, shot, and other warlike apparatus, together with cables, sails, spare rigging, and other stores, whether for the gunner, boatswain, or carpenter. Provisions and water followed; the riggers were busy getting the rigging over the mast-heads; all hands were on the stretch while day-light lasted; nor was it until the painters began their de corations, that her lively ship's company had the smallest breathing from the hardest and most fatiguing toil. All this strife of work arose from a circumstance by no means uncommon among naval commanders. While refitting their vessels at any station, they come necessarily under the command of the Port-Admiral of the place; who, from the frequency of his signals for the attendance of the captain, or various other minor officers, is very often troublesome enough; thus not only keeping the commanders continually upon the alert, but confining them on board during his official hours, in case their attendance should be required. This, however rigor ously they may enforce discipline in their own vessels, as it partially infringes on their personal freedom, is always deemed a grievance highly irksome and disagreeable; and if they can, by dint of a little overstrained exertion, escape to sea, from this unpopular etiquette, a day or two sooner, the task is always enforced with the most unrelenting rigour. A short time, therefore, saw the Tottumfog's masts on end ready for sea, and a few days more brought her sailing orders, by which her ship's company heard, greatly to the satisfaction of our hero, that her destination was the North Sea, with her head-quarters at Leith Roads. The day previous to sailing was expected by all to be one of great ceremony, which, in the version of the navy, is another name for one ushered in by excessive hard work; for it seems, whispers had escaped from that grand focus of internal politics, the captain's steward's cabin, that his worship was to be early on board-the clerk of the cheque meaning to muster the ship's company. Accordingly, shortly after day-break, they were roused by the boatswain and his mates piping All hands ahoy! Having turned out, and resigned their hammocks to the captains of the tops, who were vying with each other in their neatness of stowage, the holy-stones were produced, and to it they went, a-polishing the decks for a series of hours. As some of our readers may not entirely comprehend the meaning of this phrase, a few words of explanation may not be unacceptable. These stones have acquired the term holy, we believe, from the circumstance of their being used in almost every vessel of war at least once a-week-that selected morning being generally Sunday; when a good deal of extra scrubbing is gone through, previous to the word being passed for all hands to clean and dress themselves for muster and prayers. The manner of using them, again, is simply this:The decks being first well rinced with water drawn from the sides, and pretty liberally sprinkled over with sand, the holy-stones are next brought forward, and are large flat stones, from 112 to 130 pounds weight-of a soft, smooth bottom, with two iron rings sunk into their upper surface, from which are appended two hand ropes, which the top-men lay hold of, and by dragging the stone to and from one another, in the manner of a saw, on the sanded deck, they thereby give it a smoothness and a whiteness which the most zealous scrubbing could never accomplish. Small hand-stones are used for those corners which the large ones cannot act upon; and, as in using them, a poor wight must get down on his bare marrow-bones, amid the wet and filth, they have long been known by the cant name of Biblesa term which, by the bye, we would remark en passant, is rather inauspicious to the high hopes of those very zealous and respectable individuals who augur so much good from a profuse distribution of the Sacred Volume throughout the fleet, since every thorough-bred man-of-war's man must naturally attach to the latter a large portion of that wicked wit, and thorough contempt, which he invariably feels for the former. The decks being therefore well holy-stoned, are once more rinced with a profusion of buckets of water, to carry off the sand, then carefully dried up with swabs, and the work is completed. As soon as the decks were finished, and top-gallant yards sent aloft, the yards were carefully squared, the foretop-sail let go, a gun was fired, and blue Peter hoisted-the usual signal for sailing; all which being accomplished, the first Lieutenant now ordered all hands to clean themselves, and the breakfast to be piped. At two bells, (nine o'clock) the boatswain's pipe announced the arrival of the Captain; and Edward, eager to behold his future commander, hurried on deck. From the very first good look he got of him, however, he disliked him; and it must be confessed, that even his best friends acknowledged, that Captain Switchem's appearance was by no means prepossessing. He was a tall, meagre man, apparently about forty years of age-of a grave, and rather severe cast of countenance, whose whole figure bore all the external marks of severe exhaustion, from a tropical climate. Yet, though his form had an emaciated appearance, and his features came under the description of cadaverous, he had a strong, keen eye, and a custom of shewing, in his rapid way of speaking, a finely-formed, excellent set of teeth, |
