"Foolish companions lead many a young fellow into a scrape; but as soon as they see him in the mess into which they were the means of inveigling him, they scuttle off, abandoning him to his fate and probably laughing at his troubles too." "Aye," put in Captain Miles, wishing also to improve the occasion; "and if that shark had not been so madly impetuous in rushing at the hook he would never have been caught; in the same way as somebody told me of a certain young gentleman, who, not looking before he leaped, as the proverb says, and only thinking of the end he had in view, galloped down a hill and came to grief--getting a tumble which laid him up for weeks!" "Oh, Captain Miles," said I, "you don't think I'm a shark, do you ?" "Well, not quite so bad as that, youngster," he replied with one of his cheery laughs; "but, quite as impetuous sometimes, eh, Master Tom ?" I made no answer to this thrust, knowing there was some truth in it, my mother having frequently to call me over the coals for doing things on the spur of the moment, which, as she was aware, I always regretted afterwards.
This thoughtless impulse is a great fault, as I know to my cost; for, it has led me into many a scrape--sometimes to the danger of my life! While we were talking the shark was still struggling in the water; but when he grew tolerably composed, only an occasional splash of his tail showing that he yet lived, the men began to make preparations for hauling him on board.
The bight of a rope was made into a running knot and hove round the body of the animal; when, the men hauling away with a will at the other end of the line, which was passed through a snatch-block hung in the rigging, the captive was soon bowsed up to the mizzen chains.
No sooner, however, was he got out of the water than the hampered monster appeared to be imbued with fresh vitality, lashing his tail about and splintering the wood-work of the bulwarks as if it had been brown paper; but when the slip-knot was drawn tighter this controlled his frantic movements a bit, and Jackson, who was allowed precedence of the rest of the sailors from his previous acquaintance with the savage brute, then advanced with a sharp butcher's knife, which he had borrowed from the cook, in order to give his old enemy his quietus.
Taking care not to get within reach of either the jaws or ponderous tail of the shark, he leaned over the side of the ship and stabbed it in the neck; after which, with two long slashing cuts he severed the head, which quickly splashed down into the sea under the counter, sinking to the bottom at once from the mere weight of the bone it contained.
Jackson then proceeded, by the captain's orders, to rip open the animal's stomach; but it was found to contain nothing digestible but the piece of pork which had led to the brute's capture, the shark evidently having been lately on short allowance.
When, however, Jackson extracted the hook from the bait, he started back suddenly as if he had received a blow, clutching hold of the shrouds to steady himself.
I thought he was going to faint.
"Hullo!" exclaimed Captain Miles; "what's the matter ?" "See here!" replied the young sailor, holding up in his hand something dark and soft looking, with a bit of ribbon fluttering from one end.
"Well, what is it ?" repeated the captain.
"My cap," said Jackson solemnly; "and, but for the mercy of God I also might have been in the same place!" It gave us all a thrill, I can tell you, the sight of this old cap, which must have floated off Jackson's head when he dived to escape the rush of the shark.

The brute had swallowed it, no doubt, greedily, thinking it had got the owner.
As for Jackson himself, when he clambered up over the side again and came inboard, his face was as white as a table-cloth.

I did not hear him, either, joking about the deck all day afterwards in his usual way; although the young sailor, besides being the smartest of the hands at his work, had hitherto been the life of the crew, always laughing and chaffing the others, as well as being the first to lead a song on the fo'c's'le of an evening.

The startling discovery of his cap in the shark's stomach, coupled with the reflection that, had not Providence intervened in his behalf, he might have also been swallowed up, seemed to have completely sobered him for the time.
The other hands, however, were not much affected by the incident; and, presently, when the bight of the rope round the shark was unloosed and the body allowed to drop overboard, Moggridge sang out in a triumphant voice: "Now we've got rid of Jonah, we'll have a shift of wind at last!" "Why does the boatswain say that ?" I asked Captain Miles.

"What had the shark to do with the weather ?" "Well, you see, my boy," he answered, "sailors are generally superstitious, and they always think that killing a shark brings good luck of some sort.