answered this purpose exceedingly well.
I rubbed it so bright, that when the boatswain came to summon me to
dinner, he signified his approval in his own peculiar fashion, which
appeared to be that of an acknowledged wit.

"H'm!" said he, "I'll say that for ye, young shore-loafer, that you've
learnt that the best part of polishing-paste is elbow-grease. It wasn't
all _parley-voo_ and the pianner where you was at boarding-school!"

I said I hoped not, and laughed as respectfully as it becomes the small
to do at the jokes of the great.

But when I was fairly squatted in a corner of the forecastle, with my
plate on my lap, in friendly proximity to Alister, I received a far
worse shock than the ship's hose had given me. For under cover of the
sailors' talk (and they were even noisier at their dinner than at their
work) my comrade contrived to whisper in my ear, "The pilot is still on
board."

I got what comfort I could out of hearing the sail-maker praise Alister
as "an uncommon handy young chap," a compliment which he enforced by a
general appeal to some one to "give him" a lad that had been brought up
to make himself useful, and anybody else was welcome "for him" to fine
gentlemen with no learning but school learning. For this side attack on
me roused the boatswain to reproduce his jokes about elbow-grease
_versus parley-voo_ and the _pianner_, and to add a general principle on
his own account to the effect that it was nothing to him if a lad had
been "edicated" in a young ladies' boarding-school, so long as he'd been
taught to rub brass till you could "see something more of your face than
thumbmarks in it." The general and satisfactory conclusion being (so I
hoped) that we were neither of us quite useless, and might possibly be
spared the ignominy of a return voyage with the pilot.

About an hour and a half after dinner, when I was "rubbing-up" some
"bright things" in the cook's galley, Alister looked in, and finding me
alone, said, "Would ye dare to come on deck? We're passing under bonny
big rocks, with a lighthouse perched up on the height above our heads,
for all the world like a big man keeping his outlook with glowering
eyes."

"I don't think I dare," said I. "The cook told me not to stir till these
were done. Are we going slower? That pumping noise is slower than it
was, I'm sure."

"We are so," said Alister; "I'm wondering if--" He ran out without
finishing his sentence, but soon returned with a face rathe