per; and you won't find yourself
put upon, on board the Paramatta."

"Can't I go up aloft now?" Reuben asked. "I would rather accustom
myself to it while we are lying steady, than go up when the wind's
blowing, and she is heeling over."

"Go up! To be sure you can, and I will go up with you, and tell you
some of the names of the ropes, and put you up to things. There's a
pleasure in helping a lad who seems in any way teachable. Some of
they boys as comes on board a ship ain't worth their salt, in these
days."

The sailor led the way up the shrouds. Reuben found it much more
difficult than it looked. He had seen the sailors running up and
down, and it looked as easy as mounting a ladder; but the slackness
of the ratlines--which, as the sailor told him, was the name of the
pieces of rope which answered to the rounds of a ladder--made it at
first awkward. When they reached the main top the sailor told him
to sit down, and look round quietly, till he became accustomed to
the height.

"It looks unnatural and risky, at first," he said; "but when you
get accustomed to it, you will feel just as safe, when you are
astraddle the end of a yard, and the ship rolling fit to take her
masts out, as if you were standing on the deck."

As Reuben had heard the sailors laughing and joking aloft, as they
hauled out the earrings of the sails, he had no doubt that what the
sailor said was true; but it seemed, to him, that he should never
accustom himself to sit at the end of a spar, with nothing but the
water at a vast depth below. It would be bad, even with the ship
lying quiet, as at present. It would be terrible with the vessel in
a heavy sea.

The sailor now told him the names of the masts and stays, giving
him a general idea of the work aloft, and presently asked him
whether he would like to return to the deck now, or to mount a bit
higher. Although Reuben was now becoming accustomed to the
position, he would, had he consulted his inner feelings, have
rather gone down than up; but he thought it was better to put a
good face on it, and to accustom himself, at once, to what he would
probably have to do sooner or later.

Holding on tight then, and following the instructions of his
companion, he made his way up until he was seated on the cap of the
top-gallant mast, holding tight to the spar, which towered still
higher above him. He was surprised at the size and strength of the
spars, which had looked so light and slender, from b