mast, which spattered
his lower extremities very badly.

"What are you about, you rascal?" roared the learned gentleman,
springing from his perch to the deck.

But it would have been better for him to remain where he was, for the
instant his feet struck the deck, the full force of the stream from the
hose-pipe saluted him squarely in the face, filling his mouth with
water, and well nigh overthrowing him with its violence. This was a sad
accident. McDougal, one of the quartermasters, held the pipe. At the
moment the professor sprang from the fife-rail, the hoseman was looking
behind him, his attention having been called away from his work by a
remark of one of the hands at the brake.

"What do you mean, you rascal?" sputtered Mr. Hamblin, attempting to
free his mouth of the dirty Scheldt water which had been forced into it.

"That's number three," whispered one of the brake-men to another.

"Hush up!" replied the one addressed, from the corner of his mouth.

McDougal dropped the hose, and rushed aft to the place where the unhappy
_savant_ stood.

"You impertinent puppy!" cried Mr. Hamblin, soiling his white
handkerchief with the foul water upon his face.

"O, dear! What have I done!" groaned McDougal, clasping his hands in an
agony of dismay. "I beg your pardon! I didn't see you, sir. O, what have
I done!" And the wretched hoseman actually threw himself on his knees
upon the wet deck, and implored the forgiveness of the injured magnate
of the school-room.

"You meant to do it!" exclaimed the implacable pedagogue.

"No, sir! Indeed, I did not! Won't you forgive me?" pleaded McDougal,
still upon his knees.

"What does all this mean?" demanded Pelham, who was officer of the deck,
as he rushed to the spot from the topgallant forecastle, where he had
gone to keep out of the way of the splashing waters.

"O, Mr. Pelham," groaned the hoseman, "I am so sorry!"

"Get up!" said Pelham to the culprit, sternly, for anything like
servility was very disgusting to him, and probably he had his own views
in regard to Mr. Hamblin.

McDougal obeyed this imperative command, and though, ordinarily, a young
man of nerve and of much self-possession, he appeared to be trembling
with apprehension. His lips quivered, his knees smote against each
other, and he stood wringing his hands, apparently in the most abject
terror.

"I didn't mean to do it, Mr. Pelham," chattered the miserable hoseman.

"Mr. Pelham, in my opinion this