ain occasions.

Major Billcord sat back in his chair, and watched the movements of the
boy-waiter for the full space of fifteen seconds, which he doubtless
interpreted as fifteen minutes. It was not to be expected that he could
finish, or even go on with, his dinner without the boiled onions well
done. Possibly he did not care so much for the aromatic vegetable as he
did for his own sweet will. At any rate, he would not touch another
morsel of food; and, when the fifteen seconds had fully expired, he was
ready to make another demonstration.

"Boy, didn't I tell you to go and call the steward, and tell him to send
me another waiter?" demanded Major Billcord, as savagely as though Dory
had struck him in the face.

"Yes, sir, you did, and I am going; but we are all very busy, and the
passengers want a great many things. I am going now, sir," replied Dory,
who thought it might be safer to let the rest of the passengers wait
than to anger so great a magnate as the major.

Dory delivered his message, and the steward uttered an exclamation which
would have cost him his situation if Major Billcord had heard it. The
head of the culinary department went to the place occupied by the
important personage.

"If you don't discharge that boy before supper-time, there will be
trouble," said the major when the steward presented himself. "He is
stupid, careless, and impertinent. He had the presumption to tell me
that he did not cook the onions, and it was not his fault that they were
not properly done."

Possibly the steward might have voted on the same side of the question,
if he had considered it prudent to express an opinion; but he apologized
for the cook, and said nothing about the waiter. He explained that he
had been to the kitchen for the onions, and had sent the best on the
boat to the distinguished passenger.

"Then the young rascal gave them to some other person!" exclaimed Major
Billcord. "The boy is not fit for a waiter."

"He is only serving for a week or two, while one of our regular waiters
is away. He is the son of one of the second pilots."

"Which one?" demanded the angry passenger.

"Dornwood. He says the boy is a little wild, and he wants to get
something for him to do," added the steward. "The boy is rather more
than his mother can manage when his father is away, as he is all the
season."

"This is not a reform-school, and we don't want any such scallawags on
the boat. But you needn't tell Dornwood that