ent captains I had served with, particularly Lord
Edward.

"Oh, ay, thats enough; you _must_ be a smart fellow, if you have served
with Lord Edward."

I understood the envious and sarcastic manner in which this was uttered,
and prepared accordingly for an arduous campaign, quite sure that this
man, who was no seaman, would have been too happy in turning back one of
Lord Edward's midshipmen. Several problems were given to me, which I
readily solved, and returned to them. They examined my logs and
certificates with much seeming scrutiny, and then ventured a question in
the higher branches of mathematics. This I also solved; but I found
talent was not exactly what they wanted. The little skinny captain
seemed rather disappointed that he could not find fault with me. A
difficult problem in spherical trigonometry lay before them, carefully
drawn out, and the result distinctly marked at the bottom; but this I
was not, of course, permitted to see. I soon answered the question;
they compared my work with that which had been prepared for them; and as
they did not exactly agree, I was told that _I_ was wrong. I was not
disconcerted, and very deliberately looking over my work, I told them I
could not discover any error, and was able to prove it by inspection, by
Canon, by Gunter, or by figure.

"You think yourself a very clever fellow, I dare say," said the little
fat captain.

"A second Euclid!" said the tall captain. "Pray, sir, do you know the
meaning of `_Pons Asinorum_?'"

"Bridge of Asses, sir," said I, staring him full in the face, with a
smile under the skin.

Now it was very clear to me that the little fat captain had never heard
of the Asses' Bridge before, and therefore supposed I was quizzing the
tall captain, who, from having been what we used to term a "harbour-duty
man" all his life, had heard of the _Pons Asinorum_, but did not know
which of the problems of Euclid it was, nor how it was applicable to
navigation. The fat captain, therefore burst into a hoarse laugh,
saying, "I think he hits you hard; you had better let him alone: he will
puzzle you presently."

Nettled at this observation of his brother officer, the tall captain was
put upon his mettle, and insisted that the question last proposed was
not satisfactorily answered, and swore by God that he never would sign
my certificate until I did it.

I persisted; the two works were compared: I was threatened to be turned
back; when, lo! to the