before the gale came on, made the brisk cadets keep quiet till the lashing on it was unfastened--'twas so like breaking in upon a ghost. However, as it chanced, Mr Snout's goods had got loose during her late roll, and heaped down to leeward against the door--so, whenever they turned the handle, a whole bundle of packages came tumbling out of the dark as it burst open, with a shower of small affairs like so many stones after them. "What's all this!" exclaimed the cadets, stooping to look at the articles by the lamp-light, strewed as they were over the deck. The reverend gentleman stooped too, stood straight, wiped his spectacles and fixed them on his nose, then stooped again; at length one long exclamation of surprise broke out of his mouth. They were nothing but little ugly images, done in earthenware, painted and gilt, and exactly the same: the writer dived into a canvass package, and there was a lot of a different kind, somewhat larger and uglier. Every one made free with a bale for himself, shouting out his discoveries to the rest. "I say Smythe, this is Vishnu, it's marked on the corner!" D----n it, Ramsay, here's Brahma!" "Ha! ha! ha! if _I_ havn't got Seeva!" "I say, what's this though?" screamed a young lad, hauling at the biggest bale of all, while the missionary stood stock upright, a perfect picture of bewilderment--"_Lo!_" being all he could say. "What can '_Lingams_' be, eh?" went on the young griffin, reading the mark outside--"'_Lingams_--extra fine gilt, Staffordshire--70 Rs. per doz.--D. S. to Bombay,'--what may _Lingams_ be?" and he pulled out a sample, meant for an improvement on the shapeless black stones reckoned so sacred by Hindoo ladies that love their lords, as I knew from seeing them one morning near Madras, bringing gifts and bowing to the Lingam, at a pretty little white temple under an old banian-tree. For my part, I had lighted on a gross or so of gentlemen and ladies with three heads and five arms, packed nicely through each other in, cotton, but inside the state-room. At this last prize, however, the poor missionary could stand it no longer; "Oh! oh!" groaned he, clapping his hand to his head, and walking slowly off to his berth; while, as the truth gleamed on the cadets and us, we sat down on the deck amidst the spoil, and roared with laughter like to go into fits, at the unfortunate Yankee's scheme for converting India."[12] "Well--hang me!" said a writer, as soon as he could speak, "but this _is_ a streak beyond the Society for Diffusing Useful Knowledge!" "Every man his own priest,--ha! ha! ha!" shouted another. "I say, Smythe," sung out a cadet, "just fancy--ha! ha! 'D. Snout and Co'--ho! ho! ho! you know it's too rich to enjoy by ourselves. '_My_thullogy store,' Bombay, near the cathedral!" "Cheap Bramahs, wholesale and retail--eh? families supplied!" "By George! he's a genius lost!" said Smythe, "but the parson needn't have broken with him for that,--I shouldn't wonder, now, if they had joined partnership,