lishness of sending up fire-balloons. The
Captain took the pipe out of his mouth, blew a big cloud of smoke, and
said, reflectively:

"Well, I don't know. I remember once when a fire-balloon turned out to
be a mighty useful thing at sea."

"I'd like to know how," said Joseph.

"Well, if you two young gentlemen won't be bored by hearing a sea yarn,
I'll just spin it for you."

The two young men looked at one another. Bored? Well, that was good,
after all their clever hints.

"It was a matter of thirty years ago," began the Captain, "when I was
only a boy, and was making a voyage much as you gentlemen are, for the
pleasure of it. My father, who was a sea captain, was part owner in the
_Ellen Burgee_, and he thought it would be a good thing for me to go out
and sniff salt air and see blue water. The _Ellen Burgee_ was an
old-fashioned ship, with long single topsails, a mackerel-head bow, and
tumble-home sides. Her stem was rounded out in a big arch, and she had
quarter galleries like a line-of-battle ship. She was a roaring good
sailer, though, and her skipper was likely to use bad language if he
caught her doing anything under eight knots in a breath of air. She had
a handsome cabin, too, had the _Ellen Burgee_, and when the swinging
lamp was shedding its soft yellow light over the polished mahogany
table, the cushioned lockers, the rugs, and the white and gold paint, it
looked like the owner's saloon in a modern schooner yacht. I suppose I
didn't know at that time how comfortable I was, but, looking back now, I
can't say that I was ever any better off on shipboard."

THE CREW GAVE THREE HEARTY CHEERS AS THE BALLOON AROSE.

"The _Ellen Burgee_ was bound from New York for Table Bay. It's not
necessary to go into any account of her cargo, seeing that it has not
anything to do with this story, and that it never arrived at its port of
destination, anyhow, but went to feed fishes. However, that's running
ahead of my reckoning, so I'll just heave to and drift back. We passed
Sandy Hook with a fair wind and all kites flying. We didn't take a tug
every time we went to sea in those days, but used to lie in the
Horseshoe for a favoring breeze. I don't know that there's anything
serious to tell you about, except that we stopped at Bermuda for three
days, and I had my first look at those happy islands. What's more to the
point is that a week later, in latitude 18 deg. 15' N., longitude 56 deg.
30' W., we sighted a derelict br