speriment, but you've put a
notion into my head, for even when a fool speaks a wise man may learn--"

"Yes, I often tink dat," said the cook, interrupting, with a look of
innocence. "You quite right, so speak away, Billy, an' I'll learn."

"You fetch me the wine-glass," said the boy, sharply.

Zulu obeyed.

"Now, fill it up with water--so, an' put in a little brown sugar to give
it colour. That's enough, stir him up. Not bad rum--to _look_ at.
I'll try father wi' that."

Accordingly, our little hero went on deck and handed the glass to his
father--retreating a step or two, promptly yet quietly, after doing so.

As Zulu had said, David Bright did not waste time in smelling his
liquor. He emptied the glass at one gulp, and then gazed at his son
with closed lips and gradually widening eyes.

"It's only sugar and water, daddy," said Billy, uncertain whether to
laugh or look grave.

For a few moments the skipper was speechless. Then his face flushed,
and he said in a voice of thunder, "Go below an' fetch up the keg."

There was no disobeying _that_ order! The poor boy leaped down the
ladder and seized the rum-keg.

"Your 'speriment might have been better after all, Zulu," he whispered
as he passed up again, and stood before his father.

What may have passed in the mind of that father during the brief
interval we cannot tell, but he still stood with the empty wine-glass in
his hand and a fierce expression on his face.

To Billy's surprise, however, instead of seizing the keg and filling out
a bumper, he said sternly--"See here," and tossed the wine-glass into
the sea. "Now lad," he added, in a quiet voice, "throw that keg after
it."

The poor boy looked at his sire with wondering eyes, and hesitated.

"Overboard with it!" said David Bright in a voice of decision.

With a mingling of wild amazement, glee, and good-will, Billy, exerting
all his strength, hurled the rum-keg into the air, and it fell with a
heavy splash upon the sea.

"There, Billy," said David, placing his hand gently on the boy's head,
"you go below and say your prayers, an' if ye don't know how to pray,
get Luke Trevor to teach you, an' don't forget to thank God that your
old father's bin an' done it at last."

We are not informed how far Billy complied with these remarkable orders,
but certain we are that David Bright did not taste a drop of strong
drink during the remainder of that voyage. Whether he tasted it
afterwards at all m