must take a lot of nerve and courage to be a sealer," said Jack.

"It certainly does," agreed the captain. "Yet I heard from one sealing
captain the story of a young fellow whom it turned from a weak coward
into a brave man. This lad, who was regarded as a weakling, saved
himself and two companions from a terrible death simply by an act of
almost sublime courage. Would you like to hear the story?"

"If you don't mind spinning the yarn," said Jack.

"Well, then," began the captain, "to start with, the name of my hero is
Shavings. Of course he had another name, but that's the one he was
always known by, and I've forgotten the right one. He was a long-legged,
lanky Vermont farmer, with dank strings of yellow hair hanging about his
mild face. This hair gave him his nickname aboard the sealing schooner,
_Janet Barry_, on which he signed as a boat man. How Shavings came to
St. Johns, from which port the _Janet Barry_ sailed, or why he picked
out such a job, nobody ever knew. He had, as sailors say, 'hayseed in
his hair' and knew nothing about a ship.

"But what he didn't know he soon learned under the rough method of
tuition they employed on the _Barry_. A mate with a rope's end sent him
aloft for the first time and kept sending him there till Shavings
learned how to clamber up the ratlines with the best of them. He learned
boat-work in much the same way, although he passed through a lot of
experiences while chasing seals, that scared him badly. He told the
captain long afterward that, although he was afraid of storms and gales,
still he sometimes welcomed them, because he knew the boats would not
have to go out.

"One day, far to the north, they ran into an exceptionally fine school
of seals. All the boats were sent away, and among them the one to which
Shavings belonged. In command of this boat was Olaf Olsen, the mate who
had taught Shavings the rudiments of his profession by means of hard
knocks. Dark clouds were scurrying across the sky, and the sea looked
angry, but that made no difference to the sealers. Lives or no lives,
women in the States had to have their sealskin coats.

"So the boats pursued the seals for a long distance, and in the
excitement nobody noticed what the weather was doing. Nobody, that is,
but Shavings, and he didn't dare to say that it was growing worse, for
fear of angering the mate. The hunters harpooned a goodly catch before
the gale was upon the little fleet almost without warning.

"Th