Lanyard laughed, and said, "That next to a round-robin had been signed by the Midges, petitioning you would let them have the boy for the cruise, sir, in consequence of their having lost the ship's monkey and parrot." I noticed Sir Oliver's servant prick up his ears at this; and that same evening, before we got away from Gazelle, a deputation waited on Sprawl to offer both monkeys and the kangaroo, and the hog in armour, to the Midges, in fee simple, in exchange for Dicky Phantom. The commodore had recovered his looks and spirits greatly since I last saw him, and in the course of the evening gave us some of his old stories, more than one of which I had certainly heard before. They were chiefly relating to the countries on the borders of the Mediterranean, and the following tickled me a good deal at the time:-- Sir Oliver had been one of old Sir J. D----'s lieutenants on that station, and it was his watch on deck on a certain forenoon--"a fine fresh breezy day, clear and sunshiny, and the old T---- was cracking along on the starboard tack, with the island of Malta broad on the lee bow, ten miles distant, or thereabouts. She was going nine knots, as near as could be, and the admiral was walking backwards and forwards with me on the weather-side of the quarterdeck. It happened that the captain's servant was an inveterate stutterer, although a steady good man, and we had not continued our perambulations above a quarter of an hour, when this functionary rushed up the ladder in a deuced quandary, and thus addressed, or rather attempted to address the admiral:-- "'Sir--sir--sir--Jo--Jo--Jo'---- "'What does he mean?' said the admiral, startled by the energy of the man's gestures. "'Your pi--pi--pig. Your wi--wi--wig, over--over--over'---- "Here the poor fellow got into convulsions, and walloped his arms about like the sails of a wind-mill, making signs that some _body_ or _thing_ was overboard. The captain coming on deck at the moment, saw what was going on--'Sing, you lubber, sing,' and straightway he of the impediment gave tongue in a clear and melodious pipe, as follows:-- "'The admiral's pig is overboard, is overboard, is overboard, His pig and his wig are overboard, Heave-to, or they'll both be drown'd.' "'Man the fore-clew garnets,' sung out old Blowhard--'back the main-topsail, Captain R----, back the main-topsail--lower away the jolly-boat. Quick, Captain R----, quick.' "Here the old flag-officer's own servant came up to him, as he was straining his neck where he stood on the aftermost carronade, to see, over the hammock-cloths, what was becoming of the pig and the unfortunate scratch. "'There, there they are--both are astern,' he sung out. 'There's my poor wig bobbing at me.' (The origin of bob wig?) 'It will choke some dolphin, or I am a Dutchman, before evening. And the pig, oh, my poor pig!'