occurred after your acquaintance with Mr Wilder?"

"Afore, your Honour; afore. I was but a younker in the time of it, seeing
that it is four-and-twenty years, come May next, since I have been towing
at the stern of master Harry. But then, as I have had a sort of family of
my own, since that day, why, the less need, you know, to be birthing
myself again in any other man's hammock."

"You were saying, it is four-and-twenty years," interrupted Mrs Wyllys,
"since you made the acquaintance of Mr Wilder?"

"Acquaintance! Lord, my Lady, little did he know of acquaintances at that
time; though, bless him! the lad has had occasion to remember it often
enough since."

"The meeting of two men, of so singular merit, must have been somewhat
remarkable," observed the Rover.

"It was, for that matter, remarkable enough, your Honour; though, as to
the merit, notwithstanding master Harry is often for overhauling that part
of the account, I've set it down for just nothing at all."

"I confess, that, in a case where two men, both of whom are so well
qualified to judge, are of different opinions, I feel at a loss to know
which can have the right. Perhaps, by the aid of the facts, I might form a
truer judgment."

"Your Honour forgets the Guinea, who is altogether of my mind in the
matter, seeing no great merit in the thing either. But, as you are saying,
sir, reading the log is the only true way to know how fast a ship can go;
and so, if this Lady and your Honour have a mind to come at the truth of
the affair why, you have only to say as much, and I will put it all before
you in creditable language."

"Ah! there is reason in your proposition," returned the Rover, motioning
to his companion to follow to a part of the poop where they were less
exposed to the observations of inquisitive eyes. "Now, place the whole
clearly before us; and then you may consider the merits of the question
disposed of definitively."

Fid was far from discovering the smallest reluctance to enter on the
required detail; and, by the time he had cleared his throat, freshened his
supply of the weed, and otherwise disposed himself to proceed Mrs Wyllys
had so far conquered her reluctance to pry clandestinely into the secrets
of others, as to yield to a curiosity which she found unconquerable and to
take the seat to which her companion invited her by a gesture of his hand.

"I was sent early to sea, your Honour, by my father," commenced Fid, after
these little