e creature's gait, and the imperturbable gravity
with which he smoked a cigar! The little fellow was so deeply absorbed
in thought as he passed the mate that he did not raise his eyes from the
ground. An irresistible impulse seized on Joe. He stooped, and gently
plucked the cigar from the boy's mouth.

Instantly the creature doubled his little fists, and, without taking the
trouble to look so high as his adversary's face, rushed at his legs,
which he began to kick and pommel furiously.

As the legs were cased in heavy sea-boots he failed to make any
impression on them, and, after a few moments of exhausting effort, he
stepped back so as to get a full look at his foe.

"What d'ee mean by that, Joe Davidson, you fathom of impudence?" he
demanded, with flushed face and flashing eyes.

"Only that I wants a light," answered the mate, pulling out his pipe,
and applying the cigar to it.

"Humph!" returned the boy, mollified, and at the same time tickled, by
the obvious pretence; "you might have axed leave first, I think."

"So I might. I ax parding _now_," returned Joe, handing back the cigar;
"good-day, Billy."

The little boy, gazed after the fisherman in speechless admiration, for
the cool quiet manner in which the thing had been done had, as he said,
taken the wind completely out of his sails, and prevented his usually
ready reply.

Replacing the cigar in the rose-bud, he went puffing along till he
reached the house of David Bright, which he entered.

"Your father's gone, Billy," said Mrs Bright. "Haste ye after him,
else you'll catch it. Oh! do give up smokin', dear boy. Good-bye. God
keep you, my darling."

She caught the little fellow in a hasty embrace.

"Hold on, mother, you'll bust me!" cried Billy, returning the embrace,
however, with affectionate vigour. "An' if I'm late, daddy will sail
without me. Let go!"

He shouted the last words as if the reference had been to the anchor of
the _Evening Star_. His mother laughed as she released him, and he ran
down to the quay with none of his late dignity remaining. He knew his
father's temper well, and was fearful of being left behind.

He was just in time. The little smack was almost under weigh as he
tumbled, rather than jumped, on board. Ere long she was out beyond the
breakers that marked the shoals, and running to the eastward under a
stiff breeze.

This was little Billy's first trip to sea in his father's fishing-smack,
and he went not