for you at any time I will gladly
do it. I don't say that it is likely, for midshipmen have no power to
speak of; still, if there should be anything I would gladly help you."

"There is something, if you would be so very good, sir. I am learning
navigation, but there are some things that I can't make out, and it would
be a kindness indeed if you would spare a few minutes occasionally to
explain them to me."

The midshipman opened his eyes.

"Well, I am blowed," he exclaimed in intense astonishment. "The idea of a
newly-joined boy wanting to be helped in navigation beats me altogether.
However, lad, I will certainly do as you ask me, though I cannot think
that, unless you have been at a nautical school, you can know anything
about it. But come to me this evening during the dog-watches, and then I
will see what you have learned about the subject."

That evening Will went on deck rather shyly with two or three of his
books. The midshipman was standing at a quiet spot on the deck. He glanced
at Will enquiringly when he saw what he was carrying.

"Do you mean to say that you understand these books?"

"Not altogether, sir. I think I could work out the latitude and longitude
if I knew something about a quadrant, but I have never seen one, and have
no idea of its use. But what I wanted to ask you first of all was the
meaning of some of these words which I cannot find in the dictionary."

"It seems to me, youngster, that you know pretty well as much as I do, for
I cannot do more than fudge an observation. How on earth did you learn all
this? I thought you were a fisher-boy before you joined."

"So I was, sir. I was an orphan at the age of five. My father left enough
money to buy a boat, and, as one of the fishermen had lately lost his, he
adopted me, and I became bound to him as an apprentice till I was
fourteen. The clergyman's daughter took a fancy to me from the first, and
she used to teach me for half an hour a day, which gave me a great
advantage over the other boys in the school. I was very fond of reading,
and she supplied me with books. As I said I meant to go to sea, she bought
me some books that would help me. So there is nothing extraordinary in my
knowing these things; it all came from her kindness to me for ten years."

"Why didn't she try to get you into the mercantile marine?"

"She got married and left the place, sir, but before she went she told me
that it was very wrong to have anything to do with smug