n only lie across, balanced as to headway by
the main topsail aback. Then the smallest topsail, the mizzen, has a
game in its hands. The ship, as she drifts up or down, may need to be
moved a little astern, more or less, to avoid a shoal or what not; and
to do this the sail mentioned is braced either to shake, neutralizing
it, or to bring it also aback, as the occasion demands. This rather
long preamble is perilously like explaining a joke, but it is
necessary. Balch had seen a good deal of this work in China, and he
told us that the Chinese pilot's expression, if he wanted the sail
shaken, was "Makee sick the mizzen topsail;" but if aback, he added,
"Kill him dead." I wonder does that give us an insight into the
nautical idiom of the Chinese, who within the limitations of their
needs are prime seamen.

By the time I got to China, two years after the War of Secession,
steam had relieved naval vessels from backing and filling. I once,
however, saw the principle applied to a steamer in the Paraguay River.
We were returning from a visit to Asuncion, and had a local pilot, who
was needed less for the Paraguay, which though winding is fairly
clear, than for the Parana, the lower stream, which finally merges in
the Rio de la Plata and is constantly changing its bed. We had
anchored for the night just above a bend, head of course up-stream,
for the tide does not reach so far. The next morning the pilot was
bothered to turn her round, for she was a long paddle steamer, not
very handy. He seemed to be in a nautical quandary, similar to that
which the elder Mr. Weller described as "being on the wrong side of
the road, backing into the palings, and all manner of unpleasantness."
The captain watched him fuming for a few minutes, and then said, "Is
there any particular trouble on either hand, or is it only the
narrowness?" The pilot said no; the bottom was clear. "Well," said the
captain, "why not cast her to port, and let her drift till she heads
fair for the turn below?" This was done easily, and indeed was one of
those things which would be almost foolishly simple did we not all
have experience of overlooking expedients that lie immediately under
our noses.

Balch's other story which I recall was at the moment simply humorous,
but has since seemed to me charged with homely wisdom of
wide application. He had made a rather longish voyage in a
merchant-steamer, and during it used to amuse himself doing navigation
work in company