do you mean by asking me that question? I don't
know when _you_ expect to be at Kirkaldy, but _I_ don't expect to be
there for a twelvemonth at least."

"No!--od, that's queer!" quoth Johnny, amazed in his turn; but thinking,
after a moment, that the captain meant to be facetious, he merely
added--"I wad think, captain, that we wad be there much about the same
time."

"Ay, ay, may be; but, I say, none of your gammon, friend," said the
latter, gruffly, and now getting really angry at what he conceived to be
some attempt to play upon him, though he could not see the drift of the
joke. "Mind your own business, friend, and I'll mind mine."

This he said with an air that conveyed very plainly a hint that Johnny
should take himself off, which, without saying any more, he accordingly
did. Much perplexed by the captain's conduct, he now sauntered towards
the fore part of the vessel, where he caught the engineer just as he was
about to descend into the engine-room. Johnny tapped him gently on the
shoulder, and the man, wiping his dripping face with a handful of tow,
looked up to him, while Johnny, afraid to put the question, but anxious
to know when he really would be at Kirkaldy, lowered himself down, by
placing his hands on his knees, so as to bring his face on a level with
the person he was addressing, and, in the mildest accents, and with a
countenance beaming with gentleness, he popped the question in a low,
soft whisper, as if to deprecate the man's wrath. On the fatal inquiry
being made at him, the engineer, as the captain had done before him,
stared at Johnny Armstrong, in amazement, for a second or two, then
burst into a hoarse laugh, and, without vouchsafing any other reply,
plunged down into his den.

"What in a' the earth can be the meanin' o' this?" quoth Johnny to
himself, now ten times more perplexed than ever. "What can there be in
my simple, natural, and reasonable question, to astonish folk sae
muckle?"

This was an inquiry which Johnny might put to himself, but it was one
which he could by no means answer. Being, however, an easy, good-natured
man, and seeing how much offence in one instance, and subject for mirth
in another, he had unwittingly given, by putting it, he resolved to make
no further inquiries into the matter, but to await in patience the
arrival of the boat at her destination--an event which he had the sense
to perceive would be neither forwarded nor retarded by his obtaining or
being refus