s
eye happened to fall upon me for the first time, dressed in my sea
toggery, and seated, with my hands in my pockets, on the booms.

"Hillo, Jim--what's-your-name--we'll have none of your idling ways here
if you belong to this ship, as I've a notion you do," he exclaimed.
"Aloft there with you, then, and help furl the mizzen topsail. Be smart
about it, or I'll freshen your way with a rope's end, and we'll see if
you give me an answer."

By this last observation, I guessed that the mate had told him of the
answer I had given him, and I felt that the wisest thing I could do was
to obey him without making any reply. What, however, he meant by
"furling the mizzen topsail" I had not the slightest notion; but as I
saw that he pointed to the mizzen-mast, and that several lads and men
were ascending the mizzen rigging, I followed them. I was a good
climber, so I had no fear of going aloft; and while I was in the top,
luckily one of my new messmates, who was already lying out on the yard,
exclaimed, "Hillo, Peter, lend us a hand here, my lad." On hearing
this, I immediately threw myself on the yard, and following his
directions I made a very fair furl of it. I got no praise certainly for
this, but I escaped blame; and I saw by the way the other mizzen-top men
treated me, that they considered me a smart lad, and no flincher.

From that moment I was never idle. I followed a piece of advice honest
Dick Derrick gave me on this occasion: "Never let go with one hand till
you've got a good gripe with the other; and if you cannot hold on with
your hands, make use of your teeth and legs; and mind, clutch fast till
you've picked out a soft spot to fall on." Dick Derrick taught me to
hand, furl, and steer, to knot and splice, to make sinnet and spun-yarn,
and the various other parts of a seaman's business. I was ambitious to
learn; and I found the work, when taught by him, both easy and pleasant.

I was placed in the second mate's watch, and had to keep my watch
regularly. In this I was fortunate. William Bell was his name. He was
a quiet, gentlemanly young man, who always kept his temper, however
roughly spoken to by the captain. It was through no want of spirit that
he did not reply to the abuse thrown at him, as I afterwards discovered,
but because it was the wisest and most dignified course to pursue. As I
said before, I expected to mess in the cabin, and to be a sort of
midshipman; but when I went up to the captain an