nt helmsman, and off Hatteras, in a blow, was
sent from the wheel in disgrace. He did not know the ropes, and made
sad mistakes until he had mastered the lesson. He could box the
compass, in his own way; for instance, the quarter-points between
north-northeast and northeast by north he persisted in naming from the
first of these points instead of from the other, as was seamanlike and
proper; and the same with the corresponding sectors in the other
quadrants. Once, at the wheel, when the ship was heading southeast by
south half-south, he had been asked the course, and answered:
"South-southeast half-east, sir." For this he was profanely admonished
by the captain and ridiculed by the men. Johnson had made the same
mistake, but corrected himself in time, and nothing was said about it;
but Breen was bullied and badgered in the watch below,--the lubberly
nomenclature becoming a byword of derision and contempt,--until,
patience leaving him, he doubled his sore fingers into fists one
dog-watch, and thrashed the Irishman--his most unforgiving critic--so
quickly, thoroughly, and scientifically that persecution ceased; for
the Irishman had been the master spirit of the port forecastle.

But the captain and mates were not won over. Practical Johnson--an able
seaman from crown to toe--knew how to avoid or forestall their abuse;
but Breen did not. The very presence of such a man as he before the
mast was a continuous menace,--an insult to their artificial
superiority,--and they assailed him at each mistake with volleys of
billingsgate that brought a flush to his fine face and tears to his
eyes; later, a deadly paleness that would have been a warning to
tyrants of better discrimination. Once again, while being rebuked in
this manner, his self-control left him. With white face and blazing
eyes he darted at Mr. Knapp, and had almost repeated Johnson's feat on
the poop when an iron belaying-pin in the hands of the captain
descended upon him and broke his left arm. Mr. Knapp's fists and boots
completed his tutelage, and he was carried to his bunk with another
lesson learned. Johnson, swearing the while, skilfully set the broken
bones and made a sling; then, by tactful wheedling of the steward,
secured certain necessaries from the medicine-chest, with hot water
from the galley; but open assistance was refused by the captain.

Breen, scarcely able to move, held to his bunk for a few days; then,
the first mild skirts of the trade-wind bein