nder have
taken it into their heads that you are something above the common."

"I have no reason to suppose that from anything they have said to me,"
answered Ned. "The first lieutenant merely advised me to go on doing my
duty, and that is what I intend to do; I don't see how that should
offend you."

"We are the best judges of what is offensive and what is not, Master
Jackanapes," exclaimed Rhymer, "so take that for daring to reply," and
he threw a biscuit across the berth, which would have hit Ned on the eye
had he not ducked in time to avoid it.

"Thank you for your good intentions, Rhymer," said Ned, picking up the
biscuit and continuing to eat the duff on which he was engaged.

O'Connor meantime went on knotting his handkerchief, and only waiting
for a word from Rhymer to commence operations on Ned's back. Ned took
no notice, but as soon as he had finished dinner he sprang up and made
for the door of the berth.

"Stop that youngster!" exclaimed Rhymer; "he is not to set our authority
at defiance. Come back I say, Garth."

No one, however, laid a hand on Ned, who, making his way round on the
locker behind his companions' backs, gained the door. O'Connor, eager
to obey the old mate's commands, made a spring over the table, and in so
doing caught the table-cloth with his foot, and toppling over on his
face, brought it after him with the plates and other articles to the
deck outside the berth, where he lay struggling, amid shouts of laughter
from his messmates.

Ned reached the upper deck before O'Connor had regained his legs. The
latter was not inclined to follow him, though he vowed he would be
revenged on the first opportunity. Ned was soon joined by Charley
Meadows.

"You have made enemies of those two fellows, and they'll pay you off
some day," observed Charley.

"I am sorry for that, though I do not fear their enmity, and I will try
and make friends with them as soon as possible," answered Ned. He
watched for an opportunity, and was careful not to say anything in the
berth likely to offend his elders. Notwithstanding, they continued to
treat him much in the same way, though O'Connor forbore the use of the
cob, as he had promised, finding that public opinion was decidedly
against him.

Week after week went by, the "Ione" steadily continuing her course to
the southward. A heavy gale came on, which, though it lasted but a few
days, served to show that Ned was not only a fair-weather sailor, but