e terminology of the forecastle, come aboard through
the hawse pipes, knew himself for a man and a sailor, despite the
paucity of whiskers on his big, square boyish chin.

Accordingly he had advised the mate to address him only in the line of
duty, on which occasions he desired to be referred to as Mr. Peasley,
and, the mate demurring from this program, the customary maritime
fracas had ensued. Consequently, somebody had to quit on arrival at San
Francisco; and since, Matt was the last to come, he was the first to go.
On the strength of his two previous discharges he shipped as second mate
on the bark Andrew Welch, for a voyage to Honolulu and back; then, his
services as second mate being all in, he went before the inspectors for
his first mate's ticket and was awarded an unlimited license.

Matt was now past twenty; and, though not fully filled out, he was big
enough to be a chief kicker anywhere. Six feet three in his bare feet;
two hundred pounds in the buff; lean, lithe and supple as a panther, the
mere sight of his big lumpy shoulders would have been sufficient to have
quelled an incipient mutiny. Nevertheless, graduate that he was of
a hard, hard school, his face was that of an innocent, trusting,
good-natured, immature boy, proclaiming him exactly what he knew his
men called him--a big, over-grown kid. He hated himself for his glorious
youth.

"You're pretty much of a child to have an unlimited ticket, my son," the
supervising inspector informed him. "However, you've had the experience
and your record is far above the average, so we're going to issue the
license; but if you'll take a bit of advice from an old sailor you'll
be content to go as second mate for a year or two more, until your jowls
blacken up a bit and you get a trifle thicker in the middle."

With the impudence and irreverence of his tender years, however, Matt
Peasley scorned this well-meant advice, notwithstanding the fact that he
knew it to be sound, for by shipping as second mate and remaining in the
same ship, sooner or later his chance would come. The first mate would
quit, or be promoted or drowned, or get drunk; and then his shoes would
be waiting for Matt tried and true, and the holder of a first mate's
ticket.

However, there is an old saw to the effect that youth must be served,
and young Matt desired a helping totally disproportionate to his years,
if not to his experience; hence he elected to ignore the fact that
shipmasters are wa