aloft."

"That's what I was thinking of you, Jem."

"Well, yes, sir, tidy--tidy like, and I s'pose it arn't much worse than
coming down that there rope when we tried to get away; but I often feel
when I'm lying out on the yard, with my feet in the stirrup, that
there's a precious little bit between being up there and lying down on
the deck, never to get up again."

"You shouldn't think of it, Jem. I try not to."

"So do I, but you can't help it sometimes. How long have we been at sea
now?"

"Six months, Jem."

"Is it now? Don't seem so long. I used to think I should get away
before we'd been aboard a week, and it's six months, and we arn't gone.
You do mean to go if you get a chance?"

"Yes, Jem," said Don, frowning. "I said I would, and I will."

"Arn't it being a bit obstinate like, Mas' Don?"

"Obstinate? What, to do what I said I'd do?"

"Well, p'r'aps not, sir; but it do sound obstinate all the same."

"You like being a sailor then, Jem?"

"Like it? Being ordered about, and drilled, and sent aloft in rough
weather, and all the time my Sally thousands o' miles away? Well, I do
wonder at you, Mas' Don, talking like that."

"It was your own fault, Jem. I can't help feeling as I did. It was
such a cruel, cowardly way of kidnapping us, and dragging us away, and
never a letter yet to tell us what they think at home, after those I
sent. No, Jem, as I've said before, I'd have served the king as a
volunteer, but I will not serve a day longer than I can help after being
pressed."

"T'others seem to have settled down."

"So do we seem to, Jem; but perhaps they're like us, and only waiting
for a chance to go."

"Don't talk out loud, Mas' Don. I want to go home: but somehow I
sha'n't quite like going when the time does come."

"Why not?"

"Well, some of the lads make very good messmates, and the officers arn't
bad when they're in a good temper; and I've took to that there hammock,
Mas' Don. You can't think of how I shall miss that there hammock."

"You'll soon get over that, Jem."

"Yes, sir, dessay I shall; and it will be a treat to sit down at a
decent table with a white cloth on, and eat bread and butter like a
Christian."

"Instead of tough salt junk, Jem, and bad, hard biscuits."

"And what a waste o' time it do seem learning all this sailoring work,
to be no use after all. Holy-stoning might come in. I could holy-stone
our floor at home, and save my Sally the trouble, and--" Jem