h! am I, sir? Well, what do you call yerself--all yaller and huddled
up like a sick monkey in a hurricane. Why, I'd make a better boy out of
a ship's paddy and a worn-out swab."

Syd hit out at him with all his might, striking the bo'sun in the chest,
but overbalancing himself so that he rolled out of the hammock, and
would have fallen had not Barney caught him in his arms and planted him
on the deck.

"Hoorray! Well done, Master Syd; now then, on with these here
stockings, and jump into your breeches. I'll help you. On'y want a
good wash and a breath o' fresh air, and then--look here, I'll get the
cook to let you have a basin o' soup, and you'll be as right as a
marlin-spike in a ball o' tow."

Syd was too weak to make much opposition. He had awakened to the fact
after his fit of passion that he really was not so bad as he thought.
The ship was not dancing about, and there was a bright ray of sunshine
cutting the darkness outside the place where he lay, and once or twice
he had inhaled a breath of sweet, balmy, summer-like air. Then, too,
his head did not swim so much in an erect position, and he let Barney go
on talking in his rough, good-humoured fashion, and help him on with
some clothes; bring him a bowl of water in which he had a good wash; and
when at last he was dressed and sitting back weak and helpless on the
locker, the bo'sun said--

"Now, I was going to say have a whiff o' fresh air first, my lad; but
you are a bit pulled down for want o' wittals. I'll speak to the cook
now, and seeing who you are, I dessay he'll rig you up a mess of slops
as 'll do you no end o' good."

"I couldn't touch anything, Barney."

"Yah, lad! you dunno. Said you couldn't get up, and here you are.
Think I can't manage you. Here, have another hit out at me."

"Oh, Barney, I am so sorry."

"Sorry be hanged, lad! I'm glad. You won't know yourself another
hour."

"But--but I'm going to be sick again, Barney," gasped the invalid.

"That's a moral impossibility, my lad, as I werry well know. You sit
still while I fetch you something to put in your empty locker. Didn't
know I was such a doctor, did yer?"

Barney stepped out of the door, and went straight for the galley,
leaving Syd leaning back in a corner feeling deathly sick, the
perspiration standing cold upon his brow, and with an intense longing to
lie down once more, and in profound ignorance of what will can do for a
sea-sick patient after a certain amou