work out a
reckoning better than--than myself!"

"That mebbe, that mebbe, I dinna gang for to denee that stat'ment,
Cap'en," said the Scotsman, sneeringly, implying that I or anybody else
might easily eclipse the skipper's powers of calculation; "but I hae my
doots, mon, I hae my doots."

"You can `hay' your grandmother if you like," retorted Captain Billings,
decisively; "still, it's my order that Leigh acts as second mate until
Mr Ohlsen is able to return to duty. I'm captain of this ship, Mr
Macdougall, please remember!"

This was the invariable expression the skipper always made use of when
he had made up his mind to anything, so the mate knew that there was no
use in his trying to argue the point any further, and he left the poop,
where the altercation had taken place, in a towering rage. This his
freckles plainly showed, his equanimity not being restored by the ill-
concealed titters of the men standing by, for they had overheard most of
what had been said, and repeated the substance of the conversation to me
afterwards.

I was, it is true, only sixteen at the time; but, being a sturdy, broad-
shouldered chap, I looked all two years older; and I really do not think
the skipper complimented me too strongly when he said I was worth a
couple of hands on a yard, for, during my experience in the coal brig
under Jorrocks' tuition, I had acquired considerable proficiency and
dexterity in most of a seaman's functions, which aptitude I had further
improved while sailing in Sam Pengelly's schooner between the various
ports between Plymouth and the Land's End for two years nearly at a
stretch afterwards.

My nautical education, too, as I have already mentioned, had not been
neglected all the time I had been waiting to get on board a sea-going
ship, for since I had joined the _Esmeralda_ I had not lost a single
opportunity for developing my book learning by practical examples in
seamanship, Captain Billings encouraging me to persevere whenever he saw
me inclined to laziness, and giving me all the advantage of his own
training and experience; so that, by this time, I believe I was almost
as competent to take charge of the ship on an emergency and navigate her
to her destination, as if I had passed the Trinity House examination and
received a first mate's certificate like Mr Macdougall, whom in the
mathematical part of navigation I could beat easily.

Of course, I was not up in sailor lore as to atmospheric changes and