key--nay, had no doubt, if I took pains, I should some day acquire an _ear_. Just when I was annoyed past bearing, Pledget, tittering with ecstasy, whispered at my elbow, "Capital joke! the Captain did it admirably. Almost as good as puppies!--puppies!--puppies!" "Your compliment last, sir," said I, "comes in the proper place. Allow me to designate it as it deserves--the ass's kick." Pledget turned a little pale, and drew up; said something that seemed to stick in his throat, about "lions roaring, and asses braying." We were on the edge of a regular tiff. The general garrulity dropped into a dead silence, and the whole party looked concerned. The Colonel at once interposed, and insisted on our shaking hands. This operation was performed accordingly, as in such cases provided, with immense cordiality on both sides. "Captain Gabion, I'll trouble you for a dollar," said the Major. "No, no; I'll trouble _you_ for a dollar," replied the Captain. "How do you make that out?" said the Major. "You've lost; that's evident." "What do you mean by lost?" said Captain Gabion. "Didn't I make Mr Y-- sing three songs within the given time? Hadn't I two minutes over, when he finished the last? Weren't they all three Portuguese? I took good care of that. Wasn't that our bet?" "Yes, Captain; all right," said the Major. "But one of _your_ songs was Spanish. That was an infringement." "Didn't understand any condition of that sort," replied Captain Gabion. "All the party heard the bet. Let the company decide." One said one thing, one another. By common consent it was referred to Gingham, who had held his tongue. Gingham decided that the Captain had lost. "Very well," said the Captain, "then I have had all my trouble for nothing. Rather hard, though, to sing three songs yourself; get three more out of a gentleman that has a particular objection to singing, in forty minutes; and then have to pay a dollar besides. However, book it, Major. Very kind of you, though, Mr Y--: equally obliged. Trust you'll often favour us." We all went below to prepare for dinner; but I had not heard the last of my singing. We were now on the look-out for Cape Villano, and began to feel the N. wind which blows down the W. coast of the Spanish Peninsula ten months in the year. This wind, as you get further to the S., is generally attended with a clear sky. But in our present latitude, meeting the upper or S.W. current of air, which comes charged with the vapours of the Atlantic, it produced incessant rain. The rain commenced, as indeed rain often does commence, about three o'clock P.M., and kept us below all the evening; obliging us also to lay-to till daybreak, as the skipper did not like to run nearer in by night, with such weather.