up to go through the manoeuvres
themselves, the boatswain, or one of the masters, giving them lessons.
Bill was very quick in learning, and so, before they got half way across
the Atlantic, he knew how to put the ship about almost as well as any
body on board. He soon, indeed, caught Tommy Rebow up, and as they were
both well-grown lads, they were placed in the mizzen-top. Both of them
soon learned to lay out on the yards, and to reef and furl the
mizzen-topsail as well as anybody.

"Come, Bill, I told Joe Simmons I would learn you all I know myself,"
said Jack Windy, "and now you are getting seamanship, it's time you
should be learning the hornpipe. You have a good ear, because you can
sing well, as I have heard you; so you should learn to dance it, to
astonish the natives wherever we go."

Captain Trevelyan had secured a fiddler among his ship's company--a
negro of jet black hue, with a face all crumpled up in a most curious
fashion, with great white rolling eyeballs, and huge thick lips. He was
not a beauty, and he did not think so himself; but he prided himself on
playing the fiddle, and well, too, he did play it. His name was
Diogenes Snow; but he was called Dio, or Di sometimes, for shortness.
With his music, and under Jack Windy's instruction, Bill soon learned to
dance a hornpipe, so that few could surpass him.

"Dare, Bill; well done, Bill!" shouted Dio, as he scraped away with
might and main. "Oh, golly! Iolly! Bill would beat Queen Charlotte,
if she tried to do it, dat he would. Berry well, Bill. Keep moving,
boy! Dat's it! One more turn! Hurrah! Hurrah!"

CHAPTER FOUR.

The _Lilly_ had been ordered to proceed direct to Jamaica. She was
already in the latitude of the West Indies, and might expect to get into
Port Royal in the course of six or eight days. Hitherto the weather had
been remarkably fine, though the wind had been generally light. There
was now, however, a dead calm. The dog-vanes hung up and down, the
sails every now and then giving sullen flaps against the masts, while
the ship rolled slowly--so slowly as scarcely to allow the movement to
be perceptible--from side to side. The ocean was as smooth as the
smoothest mirror, not a ripple, not the slightest cat's-paw being
perceptible on it. Instead, however, of its usual green colour, it had
become of a dead leaden hue, the whole arch of heaven being also spread
with a dark grey canopy of a muddy tint. Yet, though the su