OR, VULCAN S PEAK. 25 fortable, and Bridget thought that the room in which she was united to Mark was one of the prettiest she had ever seen. The reader, however, is not to imagine it a cabin oinamented with marble columns, rose-wood, and the ma ples, as so often happens now-a-days. No such extrava gance was dreamed of fifty years ago; but, as far as judi cious arrangements, neat joiner s work, and appropriate furniture went, the cabin of the Rancocus was a very re spectable little room. The circumstance that it was on deck, contributed largely to its appearance and comfort, sunken cabins, or those below decks, being necessarily much circumscribed in small ships, in consequence of being placed in a part of the vessel that is contracted in its dimensions under water, in order to help their sailing qualities. The witnesses of the union of our hero and heroine were the female friend of Bridget named, the officiating clergy man, and one seaman who had sailed with the bridegroom in all his voyages, and who was now retained on board the vessel as a ship-keeper, intending to go out in her again, as soon as she should be ready for sea. The name of this mariner was Belts, or Bob Betts as he was commonly called ; and as he acts a conspicuous part in the events to be recorded, it may be well to say a word or two more of his history and character. Bob Betts was a Jerseyman ; or, as he would have pronounced the word himself, a Jar- seyman in the American meaning of the word, however, and not in the English. Bob was born in Cape May county, and in the State of New Jersey, United States of America. At the period of which we are now writing, he must hare been about five-and-thirty, and seemingly a con firmed bachelor. The windows of Bob s father s house looked out upon the Atlantic Ocean, and he snuffed sea air from the hour of his birth. At eight years of age he was placed, as cabin-boy, on board a coaster ; and from that time down to the moment when he witnessed the mar riage ceremony between Mark and Bridget, he had been a sailor. Throughout the whole war of the revolution Bob had served in the navy, in some vessel or other, and with great good luck, never having been made a prisoner of war. In connection with this circumstance was one of VOL. I. 3
