be torn away from his beloved wife and adored children—no, no! Drowning men catch at straws, and Freddy crunched the Ship, ejaculating at the same time a sincere wish that his return to England from New York, and all its consequences might be obliterated from his history for ever!
CHAPTER II.
The fairy was as good as her word. A remarkable change took place in Mr. Freddy Foggerty's condition. The confectioner's shop, the twelfth-cake, the house, the street, the corporal's guard, all vanished in a moment, and Freddy found himself lying in a comfortable cot in a ship's stern-cabin.
Freddy was wondering where he was, and how he got there, when the cabin-door opened, and a black man put his head in.
"Seven bells, Massa Foggerty."
"Oh!" said Freddy; "how's her head?"
"S.S.W. and by S.—light breeze freshenin', Massa Foggerty."
"Oh! then I'll tumble up."
Freddy felt it incumbent upon him to appear to know exactly where he was, and to be surprised at nothing. He determined to make no inquiries, but to leave it to time and accident to enlighten him as to the circumstances in which he found himself, and proceeded to dress himself in a pair of blue serge trousers (in the
