Here we could no longer contain ourselves, and, notwithstanding the melancholy and humiliating spectacle before us, a shout of laughter burst from all hands fore and aft simultaneously, as the commodore, exceedingly tickled, sung out--"Oh, I _see_ how it is--I see--so do come on board, Mr Donovan, and we _will_ see you properly buried." "You _see_, Sir Oliver!" said the poor fellow; "to be sure you do--a blind horse might persave it." "I say, Dennis dear," quoth I, "I will be answerable that all the honours shall be paid you." But the deceased Irishman was not to be had so easily, and again refused, point-blank, to leave the Midge. "Lower away the boat there, Mr Sprawl," said Sir Oliver; "no use in all this; you see he won't come. Pipe away her crew, Mr Lanyard, do you hear? So, brisk now--brisk--be off. Take the surgeon with you, and bring that poor fellow on board instantly. Here, Brail, go too, will ye--you are a favourite of his, and probably he will take more kindly to you than any one else." We shoved off--and in a twinkling we were alongside--"What cheer, Donovan, my darling? How are you, man, and how do you all do?" "Ah, Benjamin, glad to see you, my boy. I hope you have come to read the service: I'm to be buried at noon, you know." "Indeed!" said I, "I know nothing of the kind. I have come on board from the commodore to know how you are; he thought you had been ill." "Very much obliged," continued the poor fellow; "all that sort of thing might have brought joy some days ago--but now!"---- "Well, well, Donovan," said I, "come on board with me, and buried you shall be comfortably from the frigate." "Well, I will go. This cursed sailmaker of ours has twice this morning refused to lash me up in the hammock, because he chose to say I was not dead; so go with you I will." The instant the poor fellow addressed himself to enter the boat, he shrank back like a rabid dog at water. "I cannot--I cannot. Sailmaker, bring the shot aft, and do lash me up in my hammock, and heave me comfortably overboard at once." The poor sailmaker, who was standing close to, caught my eye, and my ear also. "What shall I do, sir?" said he. I knew the man to be a steady, trustworthy person. "Why, humour him, Warren; humour him. Fetch the shot, and lash him up; but sling him round the waist by a strong three-inch rope, do you hear."