When we got up I looked about me as well as I could, but I saw no rocks or vessels in collision with us.

The waves were not breaking over us, but four or five men standing on the bulwarks were pulling things like monstrous grubs out of a sort of trough, and chucking them with more or less accuracy at the heads of the sailors who gathered round.
"What is it, Alister ?" I asked.
"It's just the serving out of the hammocks that they sleep in," Alister replied.

"I'm thinking we'll not be entitled to them." "What's that fellow yelling about ?" "He's crying to them to respond to their names and numbers.

Whisht, man! till I hear his unchristian lingo and see if he cries on us." But in a few minutes the crowd had dispersed, and the hammock-servers with them, and Alister and I were left alone.

I felt foolish, and I suppose looked so, for Alister burst out laughing and said--"Hech, laddie! it's a small matter.