The empty launch with the negroes was now cast-off, and preparations made for raising the anchor again and making sail. However, this was not the end of the cow episode by any means; for, as luck would have it, all Captain Miles' hopes of milk with his coffee during the voyage home to England were soon summarily dispelled, the career of the animal which was to have supplied the lacteal fluid having terminated most unexpectedly. All hands being busy getting the ship under weigh, the animal had been left standing for the time where she had been set down in the waist, the sling being unloosed from her and the end of the halter, which Jake had put over her head when she had been secured, tied to the mainmast bitts--so as to prevent her moving until the long-boat amidships, which was to form her quarters, should be made ready for her reception. Then, when the canvas of the _Josephine_ was once more spread to the breeze and the vessel was working out from Saint Vincent, Captain Miles told the steward to serve dinner in the cabin, it being now near sunset and long past the usual hour for that meal, which was generally on the table at "eight bells," or four o'clock in the afternoon. I went into the cabin with the captain and second mate, Mr Marline being left in charge of the poop; and, presently, I could see through the sliding-doors leading from the main-deck into the cuddy, which were of course left wide open, as we were still in the tropics, the steward Harry, a freckle-faced mulatto of the colour of pale ginger, bringing in a tureen of soup from the cook's galley forward. As he passed by close to where the cow was tethered, whether the smell of the savoury compound aroused the animal's hunger, or because Harry, coming too near, reminded her of the recent indignities to which she had been subjected, the cow all at once made a plunge at him with her head. Harry sheered off, spilling a portion of the soup; and he was so frightened that he ran full speed with the remainder into the cabin. He was not, however, quick enough for Mrs Brindle; for the sudden dive she made, throwing her whole might on the halter, caused the rope to snap like a piece of pack-thread. The next instant, the cow made a plunge after the mulatto steward, giving him a lift by the stern-post as he was entering the cuddy door which pitched him right on to the cabin table, where he fell amidst all the plates and dishes. There was a terrible smash, all the dinner things coming to grief, as well as the soup tureen, which he still held in his hands, the boiling contents passing over the second mate's head, and scalding his face, besides making him in a pretty pickle.