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passed up and down the street. Captain Hammond never went past the house but he jeered her for a witch, and every body said she was one; till one day, just as we were going across with a good freight of passengers, the ould Jezabel spoke some hard words to the skipper, as he was coming down to the craft to sail out of the harbour. He made no more to do but spit at her. The curse of the defenceless and childless widow be upon you!' she cried out. You are bound across the channel, but there are those will be there before you. You will think yourself secure, but woe, and danger, and wreck, shall come at a time when you think not of it, for my curse is upon you!' The captain came on board in no very gentle humour, and away we went with a flowing sheet for Calais. Our passage was short, but we struck very heavily in crossing the bar, though the water was as smooth as a mill-pond, and every timber in the craft sneered again. The mate, fearing she would gripe-to and run upon the pier-head, was going to ease the throat-halliards; but the captain hollaed out, 'Hold on till all's blue; it's only Mother Mount at her tricks.' Well, at last we got safe in and hauled alongside the key in the outer harbour, where we made fast stem and starn and cleared decks."

"Upon my word, that's a tough yarn," said I; "and so you really think it was Mother Mount that bumped you ashore in that fashion."

"It isn't for men without larning or edecation such as me to say their say positively," answered the pensioner, "but-[giving his quid a severe turn]-if I am to speak my mind, I think it was. Well, sir, the captain went ashore to dine with a French gentleman, and when he came aboard again he was rather too much by the head on account of the wine he had hoisted in, and somehow or other it had got stowed away in his fore-peak; so he yawed about like a Dutch schuyt on the Dogger-bank, and almost his last words at turning-in were 'D- Mother Mount!' Well, we all went to our hammocks, and the mate left word for one of the hands to turn out and 'tend her at tide-time, as it looked breezy away to the sou-west. The vessel floated about two o'clock in the morning, and soon afterwards we heard the most tremendous hallo-bulloo upon deck, and the captain swearing in a mixture of high Dutch, low Dutch, Jarman, and French, with not a small sprinkling of English dammees. Up the ladder we ran, and there he was with a handspike in his hand thrashing about and stamping fore-and-aft, like a wild pig in a squall. We got him appeased at last, and

then he pointed to the mooring ropes; and, sure enough, the head-fast was cast off and partly hauled in-board, and the starn-fast had only a single turn, just ready for letting go when she had winded; the foresail was partly up, and the jib hooked all ready for hauling out. We made all fast and snug again, but the skipper kept raving till daylight in his cabin about Mother Mount and her imps."

"But what about the imps, my old boy," exclaimed I; "you've said nothing yet about imps. Did they have tails too?"

"Indeed and by all accounts they had, sir," replied the old man; "for though the skipper was a long time silent about it, yet it came out at last, and he solemnly attested it in his last moments on his death-bed to a clergyman. He declared that whilst he was sleeping something struck his temples so hard that it made the vessel shake again."

"Why, he was dreaming to be sure," said I, "the thump was caused by the vessel just beginning to lift, and the swell rolling in made her strike against the piles. Pray, had the man who was ordered to 'tend her at tide-time got up upon the look-out when the master went on deck?"

"I carn't say as he was, sir," "answered the veteran, "though I rather think not."

Well, go on, my old friend, "requested I, "let's get to the imps."

"After receiving one or two heavy blows," continued the pensioner," the skipper woke, and he thought he heard a shrill squeaking voice above say, 'Bear a hand with that foresail and jib, and haul in the head-rope;' and then there was a sort of a scrambling noise afore the windlass, and another chock aft by the starn lockers. So he slips on his pea-jacket and creeps up the companion, and there he saw five or six monstrous rats forward; two were hoisting the foresail, two were hooking on the jib, one was hauling in the head-rope, and another was shoving her bows off. Abaft was a rat bigger than all the rest, standing at the tiller and giving orders, and another had got hold of the quarter-rope and was singling the turns. You may well guess the ould chap was in a terrible taking at first; his teeth chattered like the palls of a windlass when they shorten in a slack cable; his knees knocked together

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"Then he was knock-kneed," said I, laughing heartily. Really this is a clever tale: first, the old woman makes a threat, then she plays you a mount-a-bank trick, and lastly rat ifies her promise by"

"I have not got to that yet, sir," replied the