In this boat we were in the habit of going on some of the maddest freaks in the world; and, when I now think of them, it appears to me a thousand wonders that I am alive to-day.
I will relate one of these adventures by way of introduction to a longer and more momentous narrative.

One night there was a party at Mr.
Barnard's, and both Augustus and myself were not a little intoxicated toward the close of it.

As usual, in such cases, I took part of his bed in preference to going home.

He went to sleep, as I thought, very quietly (it being near one when the party broke up), and without saying a word on his favorite topic.

It might have been half an hour from the time of our getting in bed, and I was just about falling into a doze, when he suddenly started up, and swore with a terrible oath that he would not go to sleep for any Arthur Pym in Christendom, when there was so glorious a breeze from the southwest.