r dinner had again to repeat the full story of his adventures. His
stay in England was a short one, for the _Wild Wave_, as soon as she had
unloaded her cargo from Italy, was chartered for Calcutta, via the Cape,
and a fortnight after his arrival at home Jack was again summoned to
rejoin his ship.

The _Wild Wave_ was again fortunate in her weather during the early part
of her voyage, but when off the Cape encountered a heavy gale. Jack had
never before seen a storm at sea, and, accustomed as he was to the short
choppy waves at the mouth of the Thames, he was astonished at the size
of those he now beheld. They seemed to him as large in comparison to the
size of the barque as those he had before seen were to that of the
smack. For three days the vessel lay to. Fortunately the glass had given
notice of the approach of the storm, and all the upper spars had been
sent down and the vessel got under snug canvas before it struck her, and
she therefore rode out the gale with no farther damage than the carrying
away of part of her bulwarks, and the loss of some hen-coops and various
other of her deck gear. As soon as the gale abated sail was made, and
they continued on their course.

"Glad it is over, eh, Master Robson?" the sailmaker, Joe Culver, said to
Jack as he was leaning against the bulwark on the evening after the
storm had subsided, looking at the reflection of the setting sun on the
glassy slopes of the long swell that was still heaving. Joe Culver, or,
as he was always called on board, Old Joe, was a character; he had
sailed as man and boy over fifty-five years on board ships belonging to
the firm; and now, although sixty-seven years old, was still active and
hearty. It was a legend among the sailors that Old Joe had not changed
in the slightest degree from the time he was entered in the ship's books
as a boy.

"Old Joe is like the figure-head of a ship," a sailor said one day. "He
got carved out of wood when he was little; and though he has got dinted
about a bit, he ain't never changed nothing to speak of. If you could
but paint him up a bit he would be as good as new."

Joe could have gone into quarters on shore with a pension years before,
for his long service had made him a marked character; and while other
sailors came and went in the service of the firm, the fact that his name
had been on their books for so long a period, with but two breaks, had
made him a sort of historical character, and at the end of eac