Rambles about Portsmouth. Sketches of persons, localities, and incidents of two centuries: principally from tradition and unpublished documents. By Charles W. Brewster.

NEWCASTLE. 173
selves in the rough overcoats always taken in their nocturnal voyages, they retired again to the shelter of the bushes,
and ere long wvere fast asleep. They awoke just as the
first rays of the sun appeared above the horizon, and looking seaward, to their great satisfaction discovered a fishingboat in the distance, with another boat in tow, which they
had no doubt was their lost craft, as it eventually proved
when within hailing distance. An abundant supply of
lobsters was found in their nets, which were shared withl
the men who had restored their boat, and they reached
home in season to relate their adventures around the family
breakfast table. On their return from another trip by
moonlight to the dominions of Neptune, they brought with
them a supply of eels, of an unusually large size, which,
to facilitate the process of preparing for the frying-pan,
were deposited in the ashes of the kitchen fire-place. At
an early hour of the morning, before daylight had fully
appeared, the family " help," an eccentric and rather superstitious specimen of feminine humanity, descended to the
apartment, andd on opening the door, obtained a glimpse of
a dozen or more strange looking animals, of serpentine
form and of a dusky hue, disporting themselves among the
sand upon the floor. A moment later the mistress of the
mansion was awakened from her slumbers by a knock on
her door, and a familiar voice exclaiming, "Oh, Miss -,
I believe the old serpent and his zwhole family are in the
kitchen and I am afraid to go down there." A few words
of explanation settled the matter, and in a brief space of
time the eels were retreating before energetic thrusts from
a birch broom, that received from its holder an additional
impetus for the fright she had received. Two of the brothers were shipmasters in after years, and spent the largest
portion of their lives upon the ocean. They have all sailed
upon their last voyage, but the legends of their youth will
long survive them.