gs?" "Not overmuch, sir," says I; "small
enough sea-room for the sky there!" Up goes he to the first officer,
after a bit. "Sir," says he, "do ye notice how we've risen the land
within the last hour and a half?" "No, sir," says the first mate; "what
d'ye mean?" "Why, there's a current here, takin' us inside the point,"
says he. "Sir," says the Company's man, "if I didn't know what's what,
d'ye think I'd larn it off a gentleman as is so confounded green?
There's nothing of the sort," he says. "Look on the starboard quarter
then," says the leftenant, "at the man-o'-war bird afloat yonder with
its wings spread. Take three minutes' look," says he. Well, the mate did
take a minute or two's look through the mizen-shroud, and pretty blue he
got, for the bird came abreast of the ship by that time. "Now," says the
leftenant, "d'ye think ye'd weather that there point two hours after
this, if a gale come on from the nor'west, sir?" "Well," says the first
mate, "I daresay we shouldn't--but what o' that?" "Why, if you'd cruised
for six months off the coast of Africa, as I've done," says the
leftenant, "you'd think there was something ticklish about that white
spot in the sky to nor'west! But on top o' that, the weather-glass is
fell a good bit since four bells." "Weather-glass!" the mate says, "why,
that don't matter much in respect of a gale, I fancy." Ye must
understand, weather-glasses wan't come so much in fashion at that time,
except in the royal navy. "Sir," says the mate again, "mind _your_
business, if you've got any, and I'll mind mine!" "If I was you," the
leftenant says, "I'd call the captain." "Thank ye," says the mate--"call
the captain for nothing!" Well, in an hour more the land was quite plain
on the starboard bow, and the mate comes aft again to Leftenant Collins.
The clouds was beginning to grow out of the clear sky astarn too. "Why,
sir," says the mate, "I'd no notion you was a _seaman_ at all! What
would you do yourself now, supposin' the case you put a little ago?"
"Well, sir," says Mr. Collins, "if you'll do it, I'll tell ye at once."

At this point of old Jack's story, however, a cabin-boy came from aft,
to say that the captain wanted him. The old seaman knocked the ashes out
of his pipe, which he had smoked at intervals in short puffs, put it in
his jacket-pocket, and got off the windlass end. "Why, old ship!" said
the man-o'-war's-man, "are ye goin' to leave us in the lurch with a
_short yarn_?" "Can't help i