about four
o'clock in the morning
I was instructed how to get into my hammock , and laughed at for tumbling out on the opposite side . I was forced to submit to this pride of conscious superiority of these urchins who could only boast of a few months ' more practical experience than myself , and who , therefore , called me a greenhorn . But all this was done in good nature ; and after a few hearty laughs from my companions , I gained the centre of my suspended bed , and was very soon in a sound sleep . This was only allowed to last till about four o'clock in the morning , when down came the head of my hammock , and I fell to the deck , with my feet still hanging in the air , like poor Sally , when she caught the crab . Stunned and stupefied by the fall , bewildered by the violent concussion and the novelty of all around me , I continued in a state of somnambulism , and it was some minutes before I could recollect myself . The marine sentinel at the gun-room door seeing what had happened , and also espying the person to whom I was indebted for this favour , very kindly came to my assistance . He knotted my lanyard , and restored my hammock to its place ; but he could not persuade me to confide myself again to such treacherous bedposts , for I thought the rope had broken ; and so strongly did the fear of another tumble possess my mind , that I took a blanket , and lay down on a chest at some little distance , keeping a sleepless eye directed to the scene of my late disaster .