upon the bo'sun, a most willing teacher, to impart all he could
take in, in these brief lessons, about the masts, yards, sails, stays,
and ropes. He went aloft, and being eager and quick, picked up a vast
amount of information of a useful kind, Barney knowing nothing that was
not of utility.

"Never had no time for being polished, Master Syd," he would say, "but
lor me, what a treat it is to get back among the hemp and canvas! I
never used to think when I was splicing a graft on a tree that I should
come to splicing 'board ship again. When are you coming on deck again
in the day-time?"

"Not till I look decent, Barney."

"Beg pardon, sir."

"Bo'sun, then."

"Thankye, sir."

The week had passed, and the next day the ship was clear of its dockyard
artisans. Shipwrights, riggers, and the rest of them had gone, and
leaving the painting to be done by his crew during calms, the captain
received his orders, the frigate was unmoored, and Syd watched from one
of the little windows the receding waves, becoming more and more
conscious of the fact that there was wind at work and tide in motion.

The time went on, and he knew that there was the land on one side and a
verdant island on the other, but somehow he did not admire them, and
when Roylance came to him in high glee to call him to dinner, with the
announcement that there were roast chickens and roast leg of pork as a
wind-up before coming down to biscuit and salt junk, Syd said he would
not come.

"But chickens, man--chickens roast."

"Don't care for roast chickens," said Syd.

"Roast pork then, and sage and onions."

"Oh, I say, don't!" cried Syd, with a shudder.

"Well, I must go, or I shan't get a morsel," cried Roylance, and he
hurried away.

"How horrible!" thought the boy. "I do believe I'm going to be
sea-sick, just like any other stupid person who goes a voyage for the
first time."

Before evening the frigate had passed high chalk bluffs on the left, and
on the right a wide bay, with soft yellow sandy shore. Then there was
chalk to right and the open channel to left; then long ranges of
limestone cliffs, dotted with sea-birds, and then evening and the land
growing distant, the waves rising and falling, and as he went to his
hammock that night Syd uttered a groan.

"What's the matter, lad?" cried Roylance, who was below.

"Bad," said Syd, laconically.

"Nonsense! make a bold fight of it."

"Fight?" cried Syd; "why Baby Jenks could thrash