n't a spare berth in the ship."

"Pray do not distress yourself about that," exclaimed Leslie; "any place
will do for me. I am a sailor by profession, and have roughed it before
to-day. The weather is quite warm; I can therefore turn in upon your
cabin lockers at night if you can think of no better place in which to
stow me."

"Oh, the cabin lockers be--" began Potter; then he pulled himself up
short. "No," he resumed, "I couldn't think of you sleeping on the
lockers; they're that hard and uncomfortable you'd never be able to get
a bit of real rest on 'em; to say nothing of Purchas or me coming in,
off and on, during the night to look at the clock, or the barometer, or
what not, and disturbing you. Besides, you'd be in our way there. No,
that won't do; that won't do at all. I'll be shot if I can see any way
out of it but to make you up a shakedown in the longboat. She's got
nothing in her except her own gear--which we can clear out. The
jolly-boat is turned over on top of her, making a capital roof to your
house, so that you'll sleep dry and comfortable. Why, she'll make a
first-rate cabin for ye, and you'll have her all to yourself. There's
some boards on the top of the galley that we can lay fore and aft on the
boat's thwarts, and there's plenty of sails in the sail locker to make
ye a bed. Why," he exclaimed, in admiration of his own ingenuity, "when
all's done you'll have the most comfortable cabin in the ship! Dashed
if I wouldn't take it myself if it wasn't for the look it would have
with the men. But that argument don't apply to you, mister."

"Leslie," cut in the latter once more, detecting, as he believed, an
attempt on the part of the skipper to revert to his original
objectionable style of address.

"Yes, Leslie--thanks. I think I've got the hang of your name now,"
returned Potter. "As I was saying, that argument don't apply to you,
seein' that the men know how short of accommodation we are aft. Now,
how d'ye think the longboat arrangement will suit ye?"

"Oh, I have no doubt it will do well enough," answered Leslie, although,
for some reason that he could not quite explain to himself, he felt that
he would rather have been berthed below. "As you say, I shall at least
have the place to myself; I can turn in and turn out when I like; and I
shall disturb nobody, nor will anybody disturb me. Yes; the arrangement
will do quite well. And many thanks to you for making it."

"Well, that's se