up a little; "I should have thought you knew it by
this time."

"Know it! How should I know whether your name is Jack, or Tom, or Bill?
Any one on 'em is too good for you, I should think, to look at you,"
remarked old Toggles, with a grin and a wink at his companions.

"Thank you for nothing," said I, feeling very indignant at the
gratuitous insult, as I considered it, thus offered to me. "If you want
to know my name, I'll tell it you. It is Willand Wetherholm." The last
words I uttered with no little emphasis, while I looked at my shipmates
as much as to say, "There! I should like to know who has got as good a
name as that!" I saw a grin on the countenance of old Toggles as I
spoke.

"Will Weatherhelm!" he ejaculated. "A capital name, lad. Hurrah for
Will Weatherhelm. Remember, Will Weatherhelm is to be your name to the
end of your days. Come, no nonsense, we'll mark it into you, my boy.
Come, give us your arm." What he meant by this I could not tell; but
after a little resistance, I found that I must give in. "Come, it's our
watch below, and we have plenty of time to spare; we'll set about it at
once," said he, taking my arm and baring it up to the elbow. One of the
other men then held me while Toggles procured a sharp needle, stuck in a
handle, and began puncturing the thick part of my arm between the elbow
and wrist. The operation cost me some little pain; but there was no use
crying out, so I bore it patiently. When he had done he brought some
powdered charcoal or gunpowder, and rubbed it thoroughly over the arm.
"There, my lad," said he, "don't go and wash it off, unless you want a
good rope's-ending, and you'll see what will come of it."

I waited patiently as I was bid, though my arm smarted not a little, and
in three days Toggles told me I might wash as much as I liked. I did
wash, and there I found on my arm, indelibly marked, my new name, "Will
Weatherhelm!" and at sea, wherever I have been, it has ever since stuck
to me.

Note. Weather helm is a sea term. A vessel, when not in perfect trim
and too light aft, has a tendency, when on a wind, to luff of her own
accord, or to fly up into the wind. To counteract this tendency it is
necessary to keep the helm a-weather, and she is then said to carry a
_weather helm_. It is not surprising, therefore, that Toggles should at
once catch at my name, and turn it into one which is so familiar to a
seaman's ear. Indeed, to this day, I have often