A fiercer squall than any the vessel had yet encountered struck her before the men had time to reach the yards, and the sails they would have furled were rent into ribbons, and the noise they made as they fluttered out in the breeze was like the volley-firing of a company of soldiers. It was two hours before those whose watch was not on deck got back to the galley fire. It had just gone eight bells in the last dog watch, so the evening was still young. CHAPTER FIFTEEN. CHRISTMAS DAY IN THE DOLDRUMS. "See the pudding, hear the fun; The laugh and joke and glee; The ship may in the Doldrums lie, But--'tis Christmas Day at sea." Anon. Scene: A ship in the Doldrums. It is the saucy _Brilliant_. She has been to Calcutta, and is now on her way back to the Cape. And it is Christmas Day, and she ship is in the Doldrums. Longitude 90 degrees East; latitude nothing at all, for she is as nearly "on top o' the 'quator," as Jack calls it, as possible. She encountered a tornado farther north, which gives the reason for her being now somewhat out of her course. But she stood it well, and to see her now, with her long black lines, her tapering spars, and snow-white decks, you could not believe that but a fortnight before she had hardly a morsel of bulwark left, that, in fact, the bulwarks were more like sheep hurdles than anything shipshape. The Doldrums! There isn't a breath of wind; the surface of the great rolling waves is as smooth as polished steel, and much about the same colour. The sun is beating straight down from a blue but cruelly hot sky. The pitch is soft in the deck seams; the men in the stoke-hole are to be pitied. Yes, steam is up, there is a frothy wake behind her, and her bows cut through the water like a knife. But the awning is spread all over the quarter-deck, and her tables are laid, for the captain is a right good fellow, and the men are all coming to dine with him. They are dropping aft even now, one by one or twos and twos, somewhat shy-looking, but with beaming faces, and dressed in their best, bare-footed, in blue serge pants and clean spruce white jerseys. "How different Christmas in the Doldrums is," said Captain Smith, "from what we are used to have it at home in old England. Sit in, men; no ceremony to-day. Mr McAlpine, you'll carve the beef. Mr McCrane, I'm sure you will show the men a good example at your end of the table. Now, doctor, will you ask a blessing?" Fiddles were placed across the table--long sticks shipped together by pieces of line--and the cloth was laid over that, so that, in spite of the incessant and most uneasy motion of the vessel, the dishes themselves were kept fairly steady. As soon as eating was well commenced, tongues were loosed, and the conversation flowed freely enough, and why should it not? The captain was jolly, frank, and open, and his officers gentlemen in manners, so the men were not afraid to speak before them.