WE were moving gently along over a smooth sea, with hardly breeze enough to keep the sails drawing. The night was beautifully clear and starlight, and the weather being warm, our watch by the time two bells had struck, unable to overcome the sense of drowsiness with which they were oppressed, on account of having nothing to do, had, with the exception of a youngster on the lookout, stretched themselves upon deck, and not a few of them were wandering in dreamland. Silence reigned throughout the ship. Not a sound was heard but the occasional flapping of the sail against the mast as the wind sometimes died away for an instant and the "measured tread" of the officer of the watch as he paced up and down the quarter-deck.

       Three bells were at length struck by the man at the wheel, and were immediately answered by the lookout striking three upon the bell on the forecastle. This aroused the sleeping watch for an instant, but seeing every appearance favorable for a continuance of pleasant weather, they one by one dropped off to sleep again, after an injunction from one of the men to the boy on the lookout, to keep a good lookout-not only ahead, but to see if the mate started to come forward; and in case of his doing so, to rouse 'em up, quicker."

       But a little time had elapsed, however, before they were — to use the expression of the old salt "roused up quicker," not by the mate's coming forward, but by a violent ringing of the bell upon the forecastle, which brought the sleeping watch to their feet so suddenly, that the very next moment when the officers of the watch came forward, he did not at all mistrust but what that portion of the crew of the old ship Huntress over which he was lord and master, at least every other four hours, was as watchful a set as ever sailed under the stars and stripes.

       "Who struck that bell?" said the mate, addressing the watch.

       As no one replied, he repeated the question; but not getting an answer, he turned to the boy upon the lookout.

       "Joe," said he, "did you ring that bell?"

       "No, sir," replied the boy, who was nearly frightened out of his senses by the "thunder-like tones" with which he was questioned.

       "Do you know who did ring it?" continued the mate, in the same gruff voice.

       "No, sir," said Joe.

       "Men, did you hear that bell ring a moment ago?" said the mate, turning to the men.

       "Yes, sir," was the immediate reply from them all.

       "And does any one know who rung it?" continued the mate. No one replied.

       "Singular, indeed," said he "that the bell should have been rung so violently, and yet, nobody knows who rung it; but never mind, it's all right this time, but recollect, if that bell ever rings again, anything more than the regular half hour 'strikings,' I shall expect that you will all be able to tell who rung it, in case I should be so inquisitive as to wish to know."

       He then turned and went aft, and everything was soon as quiet as it had been before the ringing of the bell; excepting the men were discussing in low tones the affair of the ringing, and wondering who could have been the perpetrator of such an imprudent act.

       When our watch went below at eight bells, we had nearly forgotten the affair of the ringing; but we had hardly got "turned in," when what should we hear but the forecastle bell ringing again, and this time louder than before!

       "What the deuce are you ringing that bell for?" sung out the second mate, from the quarter deck.

       The ringing suddenly stopped — but the next instant, the above named officer made his appearance forward amongst the men.

       "What in the name of all that's salt, have you been ringing that bell for?" said he. He looked first at one and then another; but they all denied most vehemently having touched the bell-rope, or being within reach of the bell at the time of the ringing.

       "One thing is certain, then," said he; "you either lie most prodigiously, or else some lubberly scoundrel in the other watch has had hold of the bell-rope; anyway, it wouldn't be healthy for ye to let me hear that bell ring in that manner agin, that's all."

       Having thus delivered himself, he started to go aft, but he had hardly got abaft the mainmast, when ding-ding-ding, went the bell. He immediately turned and went forward again, but this time without speaking, until he had got amongst the men; when he merely remarked that he'd give a month's wages to know who rung that bell. He was interrupted by the oldest man in the watch, who stepped forward and said:

       "Please sir, I was standing within four feet of the bell all the while; and upon my word and honor, sir, nobody touched the bell-rope."

       "Mightn't it be a ghost that did it?" remarked another old salt. "It's more than once afore to-night I've thought the old ship was haunted; no longer ago than last night, sir —"

       "Hush up that gab o'yourn about ghosts!" interrupted the second officer. "I don't believe in the article, myself."

       He had hardly ceased speaking, when ding-ding went the bell: but this time only two separate strokes, and not nearly so loud as before.

       Reader, if at that identical moment you could have seen the aforesaid officer, you would have been inclined to think that he did believe in ghosts; notwithstanding his disclaimer to the contrary; for his face was, at the least calculation, three shades whiter than before the last two strokes of the bell, and with his eyes fixed upon the rope, at the moment the bell struck.

       "By Jove! Jack," said he, turning to the man who first hinted as to the probability of their being a ghost on board, "I agree with ye as regards the old ship being haunted; for I can testify that no live man was near that bell that time, anyhow."

       It was now a fixed fact that the bell had not been rung by any one in either watch, and of course, if no one in the ship's crew had a hand in it, it must have been done by some supernatural agency; at least, such was the conclusion the watch upon deck had arrived at, when the captain, who had been awakened by the bell ringing out of time, came upon deck and made his appearance among them.

       "What's all this disturbance about, Mr. Ashton?" said he, addressing the second mate.

       The officer stated the facts to him, as related above, and was "backed up" by the statements of the whole watch; but for all that, the captain did not believe in the existence of ghosts in general, nor on board his ship, in particular. He resolved to investigate the affair himself; and much to the mortification of the second officer, he declared that he didn't believe the bell could ring when he was on deck without his knowing who rung it; but for all that, the bell did ring, the moment he ceased speaking.

       He sprang immediately to the bell, and examined it closely; he saw nothing, however, which confirmed him in his belief that the ringing was caused by some one of the crew. The bell rope was laying upon deck in plain sight, and he was certain that no one had hold of it this time. After giving as his opinion that it was "bloody strange," he went below, and made no further attempts to investigate the matter that night.

       We heard no more of the mysterious ringing for some time; and, strange to say, for the past day or two, there had been several things spoken of on board, that did not in any way relate to ghosts.

       This state of things was not destined to last, however, for one dark night while our watch were sitting in a group on the forecastle, spinning yarns, the bell suddenly began to ring. This caused a general stampede from the forecastle, not one of our watch daring to remain. The captain was on deck at the time and immediately gave orders for calling the other watch; then after sending all hands to the quarter deck, he sent the lookout on to the foreyard with orders to remain there until called down; then stationed himself within a few feet of the bell to investigate if possible the cause of the ringing. After waiting some time, without hearing anything more of it, he began to curse the author of the ringing, whether man or ghost, when he was interrupted by the bell slowly beginning to toll. If at that moment a hurricane had struck the ship with everything set, he would not have started to his feet quicker than he did then. As before, he examined the bell, but could find nothing in the least out of the way. The bell had ceased tolling, however, upon his starting to his feet.

       He made no further attempts to investigate the affair, as he was pretty thoroughly convinced that his men were innocent concerning this matter, if never before.

       We heard no more of the ringing during the rest of the voyage; but when we arrived at Calcutta, our men, with one or two exceptions, left the ship, declaring that no inducement whatever could prevail upon them to make the homeward passage in her.

       For my own part, I resolved to stick by the ship; for I had no doubt that sooner or later, we should ascertain the cause of the mysterious ringing; and we did the very first night after getting in port, although up to the time of our arrival, I had not the slightest idea of how it was done, nor did any one on board know the cause of the ringing, with the exception of my humble self, until the arrival of the ship at New York.

       Close by the after part of the forecastle where the bell was hung, was a large sheep pen. The top of this pen was about upon a level with the lower part of the bell. Upon the night of our arrival at Calcutta, all hands went ashore, with the exception of the cabin boy and myself. We were to keep an anchor watch until twelve o'clock, then were to be relieved by the second mate, and the only foremast hand besides myself who had not left the ship. The cabin boy had the watch from eight to ten; then, as I supposed, went immediately to his bed. He did not sleep in the forecastle, with the men; but he and the steward occupied berths in the store-room. I relieved him at ten o'clock, and had not been on deck more than half an hour, when, as I stood leaning against the taffrail, I saw him come slily upon deck and look around.

       I thought in an instant that Jim was up to some mischief, and resolved to keep watch of his movements, although I pretended not to see him. Judge of my surprise, when I saw him go forward and climb into the sheep pen.

       In a moment more, ding-ding went the forecastle bell, in precisely the same manner it had done so many times at sea. I now saw through the whole matter. Our whole crew had been nearly frightened out of their senses by the mischief of that boy. Now that I saw through it all, the affair looked so perfectly ridiculous, I burst into an immoderate fit of laughter, and it was several minutes before I could compose myself enough to go forward and ascertain "how it was done."

       As soon as I could check my laughter, I went forward softly and tried to look into the pen, but it was so dark I could see nothing. The greater part of the pen was covered with a flat roof. I went aft and got a lantern, and hiding it underneath my jacket crept forward to the pen, and suddenly taking the lantern from my jacket, held in over into the pen. There, underneath the covered part, sat Jim (the cabin boy), with a piece of stout wire in his hand, about four feet in length; and looking decidedly more sheepish than all the regular inhabitants of the pen put together. I burst out laughing again. Jim, upon seeing this, knew that he had nothing to fear from me, so immediately owned up; then showed a specimen of his ringing. The young scamp had left his berth, unnoticed, upon the nights when we had heard the ringing; and having watched his opportunity, had gone forward, and into the pen. The back of the pen was boarded up perfectly tight, but in one of the boards near the top there happened to be a knot which he could easily slip from the board into the pen. He could then put his wire through the knot hole to the tongue of the bell, and ring at pleasure; taking care, whenever they came to examine the bell, to withdraw the wire and slip the knot back.

       The knot fitted so perfectly that if we had examined that part of the pen near the bell we never should have mistrusted that the unseen agent of the ringing was within the pen. Jim played a dangerous game, however, for if the captain or either of the officers had caught him at it, we reckon the fun would have all been upon the other side of the question. As it was, I promised not to report him, unless he should get to cutting up more "rustics," but to this day I cannot help laughing, when I think of the circumstances connected with the ringing of that bell.

(THE END)