Lost And Saved ; Or, Nellie Powers, The Missionary's Daughter.

you ? ' aud as though he was a-gom to chastise me for not mindin what his mother said , he began to move towards me . Shipmates , I was nailed clown to that deck an' I couldn't move a hand or foot . " At this j uncture Peter was interrupted by a piercing shriek , which rang on the still evening air , ancl to the men seemed to come from the infernal regions , shocking their nerves as would a stroke from a galvanic battery * . If all the sails on the vessel were being blown to pieces they could not have moved from their seats ; Peter had

reached that point in his story where each man had a long , lank , ghost-like figure drawn up before bis vision . The silence was so profound that Sam Watson said afterwards , " You coidd have heard a pin drop , " and Dave Blackman said when he heard the remark , " Well , I guess yer could . Yer could have hurd a bushel ob clem . " It was some minutes before anyone recovered his senses sufficiently to inquire into the cause of their alarm , and then Tom went aft , where the sound seemed to come from ,

and was told by the mute that the monkey , who had lately shown a great deal of spite towards the parrot , had begun operations through the bars of the cage towards a final settlement of all the differences between them , and that the parrot had in retaliation amputated one of Jacko ' s fingers . The shriek they had heard had come from the monkey while he was undergoing the operation . When Tom informed the men of the cause of their fri ght , they all tried to laugh , and Peter , being satisfied that the shriek was not a supernatural one , continued his narrative .

" Well , after I had stood still for a little time , an' I saw the ghost come so far and no nearer , 1 began to say to myself , says I , 'Now , Peter , what's the use of your bein' scared at a ghost , when you have faced many a live thing worse than any spirit you will ever see , especially the spirit of the best friend you ever had ? ' At this I became bold like , and started to meet it ; but just then it disappeared . Now , I didn't find much fault with that , you may believe , for although I bad always been a good friend to him ,

I had no objections to his cuttin' my acquaintance when he came foolin' around with an angel ' s robe on him . So I walked along tryin' to whistle , but my whistle wasn't good for much just at that time , and wouldn't have brought a penny at any auction . I was soon back again to the same spot where I saw the ghost , an' was eongratulatiit ' myself on its disappearance , when up it pops again in the same place as before . Now , whenever I came to that spot up pops that ghost , and whenever I went towards it , it

disappeared . AVhen it bad been playin' hide an' seek with me in this way for some time , I called the mate , an' says I , ' Mr . Mate , the ghost of young Snozzles is out on the hatch , sir . ' He looked at me a minute , ancl then he says , ' Get for ' ard there , an' don't be makin' a fool of yourself . ' Then I got kinder mad , an' says I , ' Fool or no fool , the ghost of young Snozzles is on the hatch , sir . ' He started for ' ard with me , and when I showed him the ghost he started back scared himself at first , and then he broke out in a laugh , ancl says be , 'That ' s no ghost , you jackass ! ' and then he turned about aud went aft . Now , shipmates , what do you suppose that ghost was ?" " We give it up , " said two or three in the same voice .

" Well , says Peter , " that ghost were no more nor no less than a piece of sail cloth bangin' on the mainstay . . The mate was makin' a tarpaulin out of it , and had tarred one side of it until it was black an' hung it up to dry . It hung in a fold , and when I stood by the mainmast I was lookin' right in on to the white part , which in my worried imagination looked just the size of young Snozzles , head , eyes , form and all . When I went towards it I had to go around the water cask * , which stood for ' ard of the mainmast , and then of course I looked on the black side and saw nothiu ' . When I stood lookin '

at it by the mainmast , the wind , blowing it backwards and for ' ards , made it look as though it was comin' towards me . I'll now venture my opinion , along with the philosopher , and may I be excused for keepiu' such company , that Barney Eisley never saw a truer ghost than that ere tarpaulin and never will . " ( To be continued . )