won't go aloft till you have got
your togs; a fellow going aloft in landsmen's clothes always looks
rather a duffer. Now, let us see what you know about things."

As the names of the halliards, sheets, and tacks are the same in any
square-rigged vessel, Edgar answered all questions readily, and it was
only the precise position assigned to each on deck that he had to learn,
so that, even on the darkest night, he could at once lay hands on them
without hesitation; and in the course of a couple of days he knew these
as well as his instructor. On the third morning he put on his
midshipman's clothes for the first time.

"You are a great deal stronger fellow than I should have taken you
for," Wilkinson said, as he watched him dressing. "You have a tremendous
lot of muscle on the shoulders and arms, and on the back too."

"I took a lot of exercise when I was at school in England," Edgar
replied, "and I have been accustomed to riding ever since I was a boy,
and for the last five months have almost lived in the saddle. I have
done a good deal of rowing too, for I have had the use of a boat as long
as I can remember. Of course, I have done a lot of bathing and
swimming--you see, the water is so warm that one can stay in it for a
long time, and one can bathe all the year round. I cannot even remember
being taught to swim, I suppose it came naturally to me. I am sure that
my father would never have let me go out in boats as I used to do if he
had not known that I was as much at home in the water as out of it."

"Now we will go aloft," Wilkinson said.

Edgar ran up almost as quickly as his companion. He had not only been
accustomed to ships in the port of Alexandria, but on the voyage to
England and back he had spent much of his time aloft, the captains being
friends of his father, and allowing him to do as he liked, as soon as
they saw that he was perfectly capable of taking care of himself.

"This is not the first time that you have been aloft, sir," one of the
top-men said, as he followed Wilkinson's example, instead of going up
through the lubber's hole.

"It is the first time that I have ever gone up the mast of a
man-of-war," Edgar replied; "but everything is so big and solid here,
that it seems easy after being accustomed to smaller craft. It is a
wonderful spread of sail, Wilkinson, after having been on board nothing
bigger than a brig. I used to help reef the sails on my way back from
England; but these tremendous s