and to 'put the
helm down' was to turn it in the direction the wind was going (leeward).
I found out still further, that a ship has a 'waist,' like a woman, a
'forefoot,' like a beast, besides 'bull's eyes' (which are small holes
with glass in them to admit light), and 'cat-heads,' and 'monkey-rails,'
and 'cross-trees,' as well as 'saddles' and 'bridles' and 'harness,' and
many other things which I thought I should never hear anything more of
after I left the farm. I might go on and tell you a great many more
things that I learned, but I should only tire your patience without
doing any good. I only want to show you how John Hardy began his marine
education.

"When it was discovered how much I had improved, they proposed
immediately to turn it to their own account; for I was at once sent to
take 'a trick at the wheel,' from which I came away, after two hours'
hard work, with my hands dreadfully blistered, and my legs bruised, and
with the recollection of much abusive language from the red-faced mate,
who could never see anything right in what I did. I gave him, however,
some good reason this time to abuse me, and I was glad of it afterwards,
though I was badly enough scared at the time. I steered the ship so
badly that a wave which I ought to have avoided by a skilful turn of the
wheel, came breaking in right over the quarter-deck, wetting the mate
from head to foot. He thought I did it on purpose (which you may be sure
I did not do). Again his face grew red enough to shine of a dark night,
and his mind invented hard words faster than his tongue would let them
out of his ugly throat.

"I tell you all this, that you may have some idea of what a ship is, and
how sailors live, and what they have to do. You can easily see that they
have no easy time of it, and, let me tell you, there isn't a bit of
romance about it, except the stories that are cut out of whole cloth to
make books and songs of. However, I never could have much sympathy for
my shipmates in the _Blackbird_; for if they did treat me a little
better when they found that I could do something, especially when I
could take a trick at the wheel, I still continued to look upon them as
little better than a set of pirates, and I felt satisfied that, if they
were not born to be hanged, they would certainly drown."

"I don't think I'll be a sailor," said Fred.

"Nor I either," said William. "But, Captain," continued the cunning
fellow, "if a sailor's life is so miser