top-men! and furl t'-gallant-sails and royals!"

At the sound I sprang into the rigging, and was soon at my perch.
How I hung over that main-royal-yard in a rapture High in air,
poised over that magnificent bay, a new world to my ravished
eyes, I felt like the foremost of a flight of angels, new-lighted
upon earth, from some star in the Milky Way.



CHAPTER LI.

ONE OF "THE PEOPLE" HAS AN AUDIENCE WITH THE COMMODORE AND THE
CAPTAIN ON THE QUARTER-DECK.


We had not lain in Rio long, when in the innermost recesses of
the mighty soul of my noble Captain of the Top--incomparable Jack
Chase--the deliberate opinion was formed, and rock-founded, that
our ship's company must have at least one day's "_liberty_" to go
ashore ere we weighed anchor for home.

Here it must be mentioned that, concerning anything of this kind,
no sailor in a man-of-war ever presumes to be an agitator, unless
he is of a rank superior to a mere able-seaman; and no one short
of a petty officer--that is, a captain of the top, a quarter-
gunner, or boatswain's mate--ever dreams of being a spokesman to
the supreme authority of the vessel in soliciting any kind of
favor for himself and shipmates.