As I went on shore I met the shipping master, old Capt. Harding. "Your crew make a good show for themselves to-day," said he. "I never saw a more orderly set, or heard any crack their ship up quite so much. There was one man standing by me while I was talking to a gentleman, and hearing me say something about the bark he put in his handspike and said he, 'That's the best ship that sails out of this port. The captain of her is a gentleman and a sailor and a Christian. We obeyed him just out of the respect we had for him. There's nothing of the humbug about _him_. He doesn't go round the decks trying to scare up work just to haze men. The officers were good men, too. They've kept us at work pretty sharp, but we had watch and watch the whole time, south-east trades and all. She's in fine order and we did all the work up except to scrape the belaying pins. We had to let those go. I'm sorry we didn't have time to scrape _them_.'" "After he went away the gentleman said, 'That sounds well, doesn't it? That's better than broken heads and curses and lawsuits.' I told him I thought I knew all the ins and outs of a sailor, but it was something new to me to hear one regret he 'didn't have time to scrape the belaying-pins.'" The crew all went to the Sailors' Home, except Murphy, and behaved well. Old Brown was a well-known character in Boston, and I was told this was the first time he had ever kept sober in port. His friends were quite astonished at such good conduct. He went to San Francisco on his next voyage, and I heard afterwards that the mate of the ship had selected him as a good man to "bully," he being quiet and inoffensive. He beat him and drove him about the decks in a way that completely disheartened him, and on reaching port he took to drinking again and was "beastly drunk" all the time he was on shore. In a few weeks the crew all scattered on different voyages, excepting four who waited to sail again with me in another ship. I remember them with affectionate interest and am sure they hold fast a pleasant recollection of the days ON BOARD THE _ROCKET_. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 2: Pronounced Frans-war.] THE END.