New Arrangements—The Captain’s Philosophy in Regard to Pipeology.  
That night our hero was lodged in the common jail of Arbroath. Soon after, he was tried, and, as Captain Ogilvy had prophesied, was acquitted. Thereafter he went to reside for the winter with his mother, occupying the same room as his worthy uncle, as there was not another spare one in the cottage, and sleeping in a hammock, slung parallel with and close to that of the captain.
 
On the night following his release from prison, Ruby lay on his back in his hammock meditating intently on the future, and gazing at the ceiling, or rather at the place where he knew the ceiling to be, for it was a dark night, and there was no light in the room, the candle having just been extinguished.
 
We are not strictly correct, however, in saying that there was no light in the room, for there was a deep red glowing spot of fire near to Captain Ogilvy’s head, which flashed and grew dim at each alternate second of time. It was, in fact, the captain’s pipe, a luxury in which that worthy man indulged morning, noon, and night. He usually rested the bowl of the pipe on and a little over the edge of his hammock, and, lying on his back, passed the mouthpiece over the blankets into the corner of his mouth, where four of his teeth seemed to have agreed to form an exactly round hole suited to receive it. At each draw the fire in the bowl glowed so that the captain’s nose was faintly illuminated; in the intervals the nose disappeared.
 
The breaking or letting fall of this pipe was a common incident in the captain’s nocturnal history, but he had got used to it, from long habit, and regarded the event each time it occurred with the philosophic composure of one who sees and makes up his mind to endure an inevitable and unavoidable evil.
 
“Ruby,” said the captain, after the candle was extinguished.
 
“Well, uncle?”
 
“I’ve bin thinkin’, lad,—”
 
Here the captain drew a few whiffs to prevent the pipe from going out, in which operation he evidently forgot himself and went on thinking, for he said nothing more.
 
“Well, uncle, what have you been thinking?”
 
“Eh! ah, yes, I’ve bin thinkin’, lad (pull), that you’ll have to (puff)—there’s somethin’ wrong with the pipe to-night, it don’t draw well (puff)—you’ll have to do somethin’ or other in the town, for it won’t do to leave the old woman, lad, in her delicate state o’ health. Had she turned in when you left the kitchen?”
 
“Oh yes, an hour or more.”
 
“An’ Blue Eyes,—
 
    “‘The tender bit flower that waves in the breeze,
 
    And scatters its fragrance all over the seas.’
 
“Has she turned in too?”
 
“She was just going to when I left,” replied Ruby; “but what has that to do with the question?”
 
“I didn’t say as it had anything to do with it, lad. Moreover, there ain’t no question between us as I knows on (puff); but what have you to say to stoppin’ here all winter?”
 
“Impossible,” said Ruby, with a sigh.
 
“No so, lad; what’s to hinder?—Ah! there she goes.”
 
The pipe fell with a crash to the floor, and burst with a bright shower of sparks, like a little bombshell.
 
“That’s the third, Ruby, since I turned in,” said the captain, getting slowly over the side of his hammock, and alighting on the floor heavily. “I won’t git up again if it goes another time.”
 
After knocking off the chimney-piece five or six articles which appeared to be made of tin from the noise they made in falling, the captain succeeded in getting hold of another pipe and the tinder-box, for in those days flint and steel were the implements generally used in procuring a light. With much trouble he re-lit the pipe.
 
“Now, Ruby, lad, hold it till I tumble in.”
 
“But I can’t see the stem, uncle.”
 
“What a speech for a seaman to make! Don’t you see the fire in the bowl?”
 
“Yes, of course.”
 
“Well, just make a grab two inches astarn of the bowl and you’ll hook the stem.”
 
The captain was looking earnestly into the bowl while he spoke, stuffing down the burning tobacco with the end of his little finger. Ruby, acting in rather too prompt obedience to the instructions, made a “grab” as directed, and caught his uncle by the nose.
 
A yell and an apology followed of course, in the midst of which the fourth pipe was demolished.
 
“Oh! uncle, what a pity!”
 
“Ah! Ruby, that comes o’ inconsiderate youth, which phi............