ONE fine morning when we were cruising on the Pacific coast, we found ourselves becalmed within a few cables' length of the island of Juan Fernandez. I was then serving in the capacity of ordinary seaman. In company with several other youngsters on board, I asked, and obtained permission of the captain to take the jolly boat and go on shore for an hour or two. Our anxiety to set foot upon the ground that was so long a time the home of Crusoe, was so great, I assure you we were not long in lowering the boat. If there were any signs of a breeze before our return, we were to be recalled by a signal from the masthead. After being admonished by the captain to keep a sharp lookout for the signal, we shoved off, and in a few moments, after some difficulty in landing, on account of the heavy surf, we hauled our boat on to the beach, and started on a cruise inland. We had been on shore nearly an hour without seeing anything very remarkable, when one of our number who had strayed a short distance from the rest of our party suddenly exclaimed, "Just look here, shipmates, and see what there is cut in this tree!" We went to the tree, and read the following, distinctly engraved upon the bark:

"THOMAS SAWYER,
Seaman of ship Ocean Wave, 1840."

       As there was a seaman on board our ship of the same name, our curiosity was excited, and after speculating for a moment upon the probability of its having been done by "our Tom," we resolved to question him upon the matter the first opportunity that offered after we were again on board the ship. Said Tom, by the way, was an inveterate yarn-spinner, and we concluded not to mention the matter to him until we had first given him an opportunity of speaking of it himself. Just then our return signal was run up to the masthead. We launched our boat and pushed off; but we were hardly a boat's length away from the beach, when a huge roller coming a little further in shore than its companions, sent boat, boys and all, high, but not dry on to the beach again. We launched again and were more successful, and in a few moments we were safe on board the ship. A fine breeze soon sprung up and we were again bowling merrily along over the blue Pacific. That night, in the dog watch Tom Sawyer accosted me thus:

       "Well, Ned, did you see anything on old Selkirk's plantation worth going ashore for?"

       "I saw nothing remarkable," said I; "but were you ever ashore on that island, Tom?"

       "Ah! that I was," said he, "and I came nigh losing the number of my mess there, too?"

       "How was that, Tom?" said one of our men, who joined us at that moment; "tell us all about it."

       "Well, d'ye see," said Tom, "I was one of the crew of the old Ocean Wave, bound from Boston to Callao. We had a fine run down the South American coast, and doubled the cape with stu'nsails set alow and aloft; but having a good many head winds on the Pacific side, we were driven somewhat to the west'ard of our true course, and one fine morning we found ourselves abreast of this island. Just then our breeze failed us, and we lay becalmed, near about the same spot where we were this morning, only a little further off shore. Our skipper was a free and easy sort of fellow, and it was a prodigious small amount of work we done on board, except to work the ship; and as we lay becalmed the greater part of the day, we had nothing to do but loaf about the decks, and stand by to 'trim' for a breeze, whenever it might come.

       "In the afternoon watch, as I stood looking over the rail, I sees a mighty fine porpoise come swimming and playing alongside, as much as to say, 'catch me if you can.' Now Tom Sawyer was just the man to take a stump like that; so I goes to the bow locker and gets the harpoon — we had one on purpose for porpoises — but as I looked over the rail, after bending a rope into the harpoon, and getting all ready for a strike, the porpoise was nowhere to be seen. A little time after, however, I sees him away for'ard under the flying jib-boom. As soon as I could cast the rope off from the harpoon, I cut away over the forecastle, and laid out on to the boom, harpoon in hand, determined to have him come inboard and report himself. As soon as I could station myself astride the boom, I made the end of one of the flying jib gaskets fast to the harpoon, and just then the porpoise came swimming along directly underneath where I was hove to. I let drive at him, and the old harpoon took him square in the back. I was in such a hurry to strike, I never looked to see if the gasket was all clear; and as luck would have it, somehow or other, the gasket had taken a turn round my starboard leg, and the result of my carelessness was, I found myself off the boom, and going under water at the rate of about ten knots. I reckoned that when the old fellow got the length of the gasket run out, he's have to heave to; but he was under such headway the gasket snapped like a thread, close up to the boom, and away he went, taking Tom Sawyer along with him.

       "I'd no notion of being towed in that kind of style for any great length of time, especially as the varmint headed off in a contrary direction to the one which I wished to go; so as soon as I could haul in the slack of my ideas a little, I managed to draw my sheath knife, and cut myself clear. As I had never been accustomed to living under water a great while at a time, I immediately came to the surface, and as soon as I could clear my eyes, and blow a little of the salt water from my mouth, I looked about for the ship, and 'shiver my timbers' if she wasn't half a mile away, scudding afore a squall. Here was a fine go; and what was to be done? Thinking it somewhat doubtful about my having been seen from the ship, as all hands were busy shortening sail, and knowing that if I had been seen it would be considerable time before they could put the ship about and come back to look after me, at the rate it was blowing then, and not wishing to do anything rash or unadvisedly about the matter, I immediately chose a committee of one to devise ways and means whereby the said Thomas Sawyer could be extricated from the perilous position which he then occupied.

       "The conclusion arrived at by the said committee, after due deliberation, was, that the ship was so far away, and going at such a rate of speed, that it would be useless for the said Thomas to try to overtake her by swimming, and as the distance between the said Thomas Sawyer and the island of Juan Fernandez was much less than the distance between him and the ship, it was the unanimous opinion of the committee that the said Thomas Sawyer be advised to strike out for — overtake — and reach, the aforesaid island by swimming.

       "Acting agreeably to the wishes of the committee, I struck out for the island, and after half an hour of rather hard swimming, owing to the nasty sea which had been kicked up by the squall, I found myself ashore upon the plantation formerly owned by the honorable Mr. Crusoe. Thinking it barely possible that when I should be missed on board the ship they would come back to look after me, I kept a sharp lookout on the beach the remainder of the day, but at sundown the ship was hull down to the north and east. I then give up all hopes of the ship coming back to look after me, so long a time had elapsed since we dissolved partnership; so I went a little further inland and looked about me for a place to stow myself away for the night.

       "Not liking Crusoe's plan, that of roosting in a tree, I 'hove to,' upon the ground, directly underneath one, and in a little time I was as sound asleep, as if I'd been in my own berth on board the Ocean Wave. I was always a regular clipper on dreams, and on that occasion my 'sleeping thoughts' sheered about with a perfect looseness. I dreamed of all manner of things, from a porpoise, to Robinson Crusoe; till at last I fetched up in a bar-room of a sailor's boarding-house in New Orleans.

       "There I fell in with an old, but not much respected shipmate of mine, who immediately stepped up to the bar, and asked me to lend a hand to splice the mainbrace, but being one of that uncommon kind of animals — a sailor who never drinks anything stronger than the stu'nsail-boom-tea, and the muddy coffee which is served up in American vessels, of course I was obliged to refuse his offer, which I did, as I fancied, in the politest manner.

       "He emptied his glass, and the one which had been filled for me, then as he turned away, hit me a punch in my waist timbers that sent me half across the floor. This woke me up, as a punch of another kind does most people, only in a different sort of way; and instead of a 'bully sailor,' I found what proved to be an everlasting great wild boar, rooting me over, evidently with the intention of making a cannibal of himself. Now as I'd always had a particular dislike to being eaten I resolved not to put up with it on that occasion; and, as somebody said, 'thinking discretion the better part of valor,' I jumped upon my feet, then leaped up and caught hold of one of the lower limbs, and swung myself up into the tree.

       "The animal immediately tried all his powers of persuasion, in the way of grunts, to induce me to come down, but it was of no kind of use, for I'd already had a taste of how the varmint inserted teeth, and of the two, I liked my berth in the tree better than the one upon the ground, so I concluded to remain where I was, thinking that by time to 'turn to' in the morning watch, my unwelcome visitor would depart. I took off my neckerchief, and passing it through my belt, made it fast to a limb of the tree, so that there would be no danger of my falling to the ground, and in a little time I dropped off to sleep again. It was but a little while at a time that I could sleep, though, for the animal at the foot of the tree kept up such a continued series of grunts, longer than from the deck to the masthead of a three thousand ton ship.

       "Now, shipmates, you can all testify that I doesn't like to be disturbed in my watch below; and on that particular occasion I'd a greater dislike to being disturbed than on ordinary occasions, for it was the first chance I'd had for all night in since leaving port, and I'd calculated on doing a very large amount of sleeping; so you will not think strange that long before time to turn to in the morning watch, all the evil in me was aroused, thereby causing me to say many hard words, all of which were intended for the animal at the foot of the tree. When it was fairly light in the morning, as my visitor had showed no signs of an intention to weigh anchor and make sail, I set the few brains which I happened to have about me to work to devise some plan whereby I could get rid of his presence.

       "The first plan which entered my head was to go to the bow locker, and get a good, long, stout bit of rope, and make a noose in one end of it, then throw it over the limb and stand by for a chance to throw it over the varmint's head, whereby I calculated he would soon choke to death; but a serious objection to this otherwise feasible plan, was the fact of my not being on board the ship, which would prevent my obtaining the desired rope; therefore it was found necessary to try some other plan than that of hanging. Various were the remedies proposed, but I rejected them all, till at last I hit upon the following expedient, which proved highly successful. I cut a long, straight stick, the small end of one of the limbs of the tree, and trimmed off all the leaves and twigs, then sharpened one end of it as sharp as it possibly could be sharpened with an old rusty sheath knife. This made quite a respectable harpoon, although I had some doubts concerning its durability. When this was finished, I worked my way down to the lower limb of the tree, where I found I could easily reach the ground with my harpoon; so I seated myself astride the limb, with my back against the body of the tree, and stood ready for a strike if an opportunity should offer.

       "The desired opportunity soon came, for the old 'porker' seeing me come lower down the tree, had probably concluded that I was about to come to the ground; so reared upon his hind legs with his fore paws upon the trunk of the tree, where he stood waiting to receive me. He was somewhat mistaken in his calculations, though, for as soon as I could get myself comfortably seated on the limb, I lowered my stick down within a few inches of his head, and in a moment more I struck with all my might, and the sharp end of the stick took him square in the starboard eye, completely disabling him in that quarter. I kept my hold of the stick when I struck, wishing to reserve it for a strike at the other eye.

       "It was some time, though, before I could get another chance to strike, for the loss of his eye made the old varmint tear round like a ship in a heavy sea without any rudder, and when at last he did get calmed down, he was exceedingly shy of my stick, and whenever I made a movement with it, would dodge back from the tree. I hit upon a plan, though, which was the means of drawing the old fellow within the range of my stick. I had on one of these blue dungaree 'jumpers.' I took it off and dropped it to the ground close to the roots of the tree. As I expected, the old 'porker' made a jump for it, and immediately proceeded to tear it in pieces. He had not concluded the operation though, when dab went my stick into his other eye. He was now totally blind, so I concluded it would be a perfectly safe operation for an able bodied seaman like myself, to attack him, although I must confess, that while he had two good 'toplights,' I had no desire of embracing him, as I'd a particular dislike to having any flesh torn from my bones, even in small quantities; but now, as I knew I should have no trouble in keeping to windward of him, I drew my old sheath knife and jumped down from the tree and acted on the offensive. We were very soon engaged in a most inelegant little rough and tumble, from which, though, I conclude that I came off victorious, from the fact that a little later in the day I might have been seen — provided there had been any one there to have seen — roasting a generous slice of my adversary over a fire which I kindled by means of a few matches that I fortunately had in a little water-tight box, which prevented them from being spoiled during my voyage from ship to shore. After making a hearty meal from the wild pork, which although very tough was very palatable to a hungry seaman, as I then was, I took my sheath knife and cut my name in the bark of the tree which I had stayed in, and which had been the scene of my rather laughable adventure; and perhaps in your cruise ashore this morning, some of you boys might have found the same tree; if so, you will believe, for once, that Tom Sawyer has told you a true yarn.

       "To make a long story short, they soon missed me on board ship, stood back to find me, made out my signal on the shore, sent a boat and took me on board, and a jolly time I had in telling my story."

(THE END)