--keep him from slipping down to
perdition, and save his soul alive. There he shall find that whatever he
has really learned by labour or grasped with inborn talent, will sooner
or later come to the surface to his credit and for his good; but that
what he swaggers will not even find fair play. There, in brief, he shall
find his level--a great matter for most men. There, in fine, he will
discover that there being a great deal of human nature in all men, and a
great deal that is common to all lives--if he has learned to learn and
is good-natured withal, he may live pretty comfortably anywhere--

"As a rough rule,
The rough world's a good school,"--

and if there are a few parlour-boarders it is very little advantage to
them.

For my own part I was almost startled to find how quickly I was
beginning to learn something of the ways of the ship and her crew; and
though, when I asked for information about all the various appliances
which come under the comprehensive sea-name of "tackle," I was again and
again made the victim of a hoax, I soon learned to correct one piece of
information by another, and to feel less of an April fool and more of a
sailor. Reading sea-novels had not really taught me much, for there was
not one in all that the Jew-clerk lent or sold me which _explained_
ship's language and customs. But the school-master had given me many
useful hints, and experience soon taught me how to apply them.

The watch in which Alister and I shared just after we picked up Dennis
O'Moore, was naturally very much enlivened by news and surmises
regarding our new "hand." Word soon came up from below that he was alive
and likely to recover, and for a brief period I found my society in
great request, because I had been employed in some fetching and carrying
between the galley and the steerage, and had "heard the drowned man
groan." We should have gossiped more than we did if the vessel had not
exacted unusual attention, for the winds and the waves had "plenty of
mischief in 'em" yet, as I was well able to testify when I was sent aft
to help the man at the wheel.

"That'll take the starch out o' yer Sunday stick-ups!" said the
boatswain's mate, on hearing where I was bound for, when he met me
clinging to the wet deck with my stocking-feet, and catching with my
hands at every bit of tackle capable of giving support. And as I put out
all my strength to help the steersman to force his whee