Whereby on the fifth day they ran a-foul of a cyclone; and the cry being for all hands on deck, half a dozen stuck in the hatchway and had to be sawed loose.

Whereby, in the meantime, she carried away her mainm'st, and the wreckage knocked a hole in her starboard quarter.

Likewise, her stern-post being rotten, she lost a pintle, and the helm began to look fifty ways for Sunday.

All o' which caused the skipper to lay to, fix up a jury rudder and run up for the nearest island to caulk and repair.

But meantime, and before he sighted land, this unfortunate crew kept puttin' on flesh--and the cause of it hid from them all the time--till there wasn't on the ship a pair of smallclothes but had refused duty.