-"

"Confound you!" roared Mr. Randall, turning savagely on him. "Hold your
tongue! For three cents I'd tie you to this line and drag the bottom
with you!"

Rectus made no answer. He didn't offer him the three cents, but came
away promptly, and put the piece of tallow back in the bucket. He didn't
get any comfort from me.

"Haven't you got any better sense," I said to him, "than to go, with
your nonsense, to the first officer at such a time as this? I never saw
such a boy!"

"But the soap _is_ better than the tallow," said Rectus. "It's finer and
whiter, and would take up the sand better."

"No, it wouldn't," I growled at him; "the water would wash it out in
half a minute. You needn't be trying to tell anybody on this ship what
they ought to do."

"But supposing----" said he.

"No," I exclaimed, in a way that made him jump, "there's no supposing
about it. If you know their business better than they do, why, just let
it stand that way. It wont hurt you."

I was pretty mad, I must say, for I didn't want to see a fellow like
Rectus trying to run the ship. But you couldn't stay mad with Rectus
long. He didn't mean any wrong, and he gave no words back, and so, as
you might expect, we were all right again by breakfast-time.

The next morning we were surprised to feel how warm it was on deck. We
didn't need our overcoats. The sea was ever so much smoother, too. There
were two or three ladies on deck, who could walk pretty well.

About noon, I was standing on the upper deck, when I saw Rectus coming
toward me, looking very pale. He was generally a dark sort of a boy, and
it made a good deal of difference in him to look pale. I was sure he was
going to be sick, at last,--although it was rather queer for him to
knock under when the voyage was pretty nearly over,--and I began to
laugh, when he said to me, in a nervous sort of way:

"I tell you what it is, I believe that we've gone past the mouth of the
Savannah River. According to my calculations," said he, pointing to a
spot on his map, which he held in his hand, "we must be down about here,
off the Georgia coast."

I have said that I began to laugh, and now I kept on. I just sat down
and roared, so that the people looked at me.

"You needn't laugh," said Rectus. "I believe it's so."

"All right, my boy," said I; "but we wont tell the captain. Just let's
wait and have the fun of seeing him turn around and go back."

Rectus didn't say anything to this, but walke