For a long time we chatted with old Bunks, whose turn at the wheel it was, and then getting tired of him, we took off our shoes and skylarked about in the beautiful moonlight. We set each other various tricks to perform, at which we found we were about equal; but presently Joey, whose turn it was to set the next task, ascended to the mizzen cross-trees, and sat there for two or three minutes, when he came down and dared me to do the same feat. It was a simple task enough, but it must be remembered I had only had two or three days on the sea, and had hardly overcome my nervousness in going aloft even in the daytime, and to ascend at night when the moon throws such black shadows from the sails, was quite trial enough for me. However, I essayed it, and arrived safely at the cross-trees, upon which I perched myself in a very gingerly manner, for fear (in my ignorance) that my weight might cause them to break. I sat and looked upon the heaving waters around, and was endeavouring to summon courage to look on deck from my dizzy height, when I heard a thud and a cry of pain below me, and involuntarily glancing down, I saw the mate strike Bunks, who was hanging to the spokes of the wheel. As I looked another blow descended, and then breaking the unfortunate man’s hold from the spokes, I saw the mate deliberately pitch him over the taffrail into the white wake of the _Ladybird_, where he seemed to float a minute and then disappear. Almost simultaneously I saw a strange man seize poor Joey, struggle with him to the bulwarks and throw him overboard. Joey could swim, and I could hear his shrieks for several minutes, as he vainly struck out after the brig, which was making three feet to his one. I could not recognize the assailant of my poor chum; but when I looked under the foot of one of the sails, I beheld, to my horror, the herculean form of the giant I had left a few days before at my father’s inn, the “Jolly Waggoner.” I could scarcely believe my eyes, but a form like the one beneath me on the deck was such as one sees scarcely in a lifetime, and when once seen cannot readily be forgotten. My heart beat quickly, and I trembled so violently that I could with difficulty retain my hold of the ropes to prevent myself from falling to the deck. I could not keep my eyes off the figures beneath me, and in the bright moonlight could detect their every movement. I saw the showman go to the wheel and pull his coat-collar up and his cap-peak down, and the giant hide himself behind the cook’s galley, which stood amidships. Then the mate went to the fo’castle scuttle and bawled out, “All hands tumble up, man overboard; shorten sail--be alive there--don’t stop to shave,” and the usual patter for suddenly turning up a crew, and in a twinkling up came the three men from their berths, rubbing the sleep out of their eyes with their knuckles.