, it is certain that you
will be a good sailor spoilt."

They had now been three weeks out, but had made slow progress, for the
winds had been light, and mostly from the southwest.

"This is very dull work," the doctor said to Dick one day, at dinner.
"Here we are, three weeks out, and still hardly beyond the Channel.
There is one consolation. It is not the fault of the ship. She has
been doing well, under the circumstances, but the fates have been
against her, thus far. I have no doubt there are a score of ships
still lying in the Downs, that were there when we passed; and, tedious
as it has been beating down the Channel, with scarce wind enough most
of the time to keep our sails full, it would have been worse lying
there, all the time."

"Still, we have gained a good bit on them, sir."

"If the wind were to change round, say to the northeast, and they
brought it along with them, they would soon make up for lost time, for
it would not take them three days to run here. However, we shall begin
to do better, soon. I heard the captain say that he should change his
course tomorrow. We are somewhere off Cork, and when he makes a few
miles more westing, he will bear away south. If we had had a
favourable wind, we should have taken our departure from the Start,
but with it in this quarter we are obliged to make more westing,
before we lay her head on her course, or we should risk getting in too
close to the French coast; and their privateers are as thick as peas,
there."

"But we should not be afraid of a French privateer, doctor?"

"Well, not altogether afraid of one, but they very often go in
couples; and sometimes three of them will work together. I don't think
one privateer alone would venture to attack us, though she might
harass us a bit, and keep up a distant fire, in hopes that another
might hear it and bear down to her aid. But it is always as well to
keep free of them, if one can. You see, an unlucky shot might knock
one of our sticks out of us, which would mean delay and trouble, if no
worse.

"We had a sharp brush with two of them, on the last voyage, but we
beat them off. We were stronger then than we are now, for we had two
hundred troops on board, and should have astonished them if they had
come close enough to try boarding--in fact, we were slackening our
fire, to tempt them to do so, when they made out that a large craft
coming up astern was an English frigate, and sheered off.

"I don't know what t