wasn't a man or officer in the fleet but wor sorry for him; for them as hadn't been shipmates with him knowed him by karacter. Of coorse, sir, when the chief mate was in the doctor's hands, and hove down to repair, the second did duty for him. One day, when Charley was very ill, the second mate came on deck, and seed the carpenter a-standing in the sun without his hat on; so says he-- [Footnote 3: Kelter--order.] "'Mr Chips,' says he (the carpenters aboard them ships were all warrant-officers, and so always had a handle put to their names)--'Mr Chips, why are you standing in the sun without your hat? You'll be getting a stroke of the sun.' "'Oh, sir,' said the carpenter, with a face as long as the maintop-bowline, 'it's of little consequence; my time's almost up; I haven't much longer to live.' "'What do you mean?' said the officer; 'what foolish notion have you taken into yer head?' "'Oh, sir, it's no foolish notion; _he_ told me so, and I never knowed him deceive any one yet!' "'Who told you so, Chips?' said the mate, kind and soothing like; for he was afeerd that the sun really had got in at some little crack in his upper works; '_who_ told you so?' "'Mr Pattison himself told me so, sir, last night.' "'Mr Pattison? Why, Chips, you're dreaming; he's regularly hove down, can't stir hand or foot, poor fellow.' "'No matter, sir, _he_ told me so; and if it wasn't him, it was his ghost.' "'But how was this, and when?' "'Why, sir, as I was lying awake last night in my cot, I saw Mr Pattison come into my cabin port. The cot shook under me, I trembled so with fear, for I knew how ill he was; but I thought that, while the fever was at its height, he might have got up and wandered to my cabin without knowing what he was about; so I mustered courage to say to him, 'I am glad to see you on your legs again, sir.' He shook his head mournfully, and said, 'I shall never rise from my bed again; in two days' time my eyes will be closed in death, and in three more you will follow me.' He then disappeared, and left me with a weight upon my heart that will sink me to the grave.' "'Oh, nonsense, Chips,' said the officer; 'don't let your mind dwell upon it. You must have been asleep--it was nothing but a dream.' "'Dream or not, sir, I feel that I am a doomed man.'