to your lips, and thought of
me sitting in this disgraceful state, what would you do?"

"I dunno," replied Tommy, yawning.

"What would you do?" persisted the skipper, with great expression.

"Laugh, I s'pose," said Tommy, after a moment's thought.

The sound of a well-boxed ear rang through the cabin.

"You're an unnatural, ungrateful little toad," said the skipper
fiercely. "You don't deserve to have a good, kind uncle to look after
you."

"Anybody can have him for me," sobbed the indignant Tommy, as he
tenderly felt his ear. "You look a precious sight more like an aunt than
an uncle."

After firing this shot he vanished in a cloud of blanket, and the
skipper, reluctantly abandoning a hastily-formed resolve of first
flaying him alive and then flinging him overboard, sat down again and
lit his pipe.

Once out of the river he came on deck again, and, ignoring by a great
effort the smiles of the crew and the jibes of the mate, took command.
The only alteration he made in his dress was to substitute his
sou'-wester for the bonnet, and in this guise he did his work, while the
aggrieved Tommy hopped it in blankets. The three days at sea passed like
a horrid dream. So covetous was his gaze, that the crew instinctively
clutched their nether garments and looked to the buttoning of their
coats as they passed him. He saw coats in the mainsail, and fashioned
phantom trousers out of the flying jib, and towards the end began
to babble of blue serges and mixed tweeds. Oblivious of fame, he had
resolved to enter the harbour of Battlesea by night; but it was not to
be. Near home the wind dropped, and the sun was well up before Battlesea
came into view, a grey bank on the starboard bow.

Until within a mile of the harbour, the skipper held on, and then his
grasp on the wheel relaxed somewhat, and he looked round anxiously for
the mate.

"Where's Bob?" he shouted.

"He's very ill, sir," said Ted, shaking his head.

"Ill?" gasped the startled skipper. "Here, take the wheel a minute."

He handed it over, and grasping his skirts went hastily below. The mate
was half lying, half sitting, in his bunk, groaning dismally.

"What's the matter?" inquired the skipper.

"I'm dying," said the mate. "I keep being tied up all in knots inside. I
can't hold myself straight."

The other cleared his throat. "You'd better take off your clothes and
lie down a bit," he said kindly. "Let me help you off with them."

"No--don't--trouble