was one very hot-tempered officer on
board who was very much hated by the crew, and who had been unfortunate
enough to single out for flogging just the man whom, if he had been
better advised, he would have left alone--the song-maker, namely, of the
ship. The result had been that ever since a mystic refrain, sufficiently
significant, however, had been sung at the capstan, and had found its
way on shore, where it was in the mouth now of every boy about the
harbour.

Gjert's curiosity about everything connected with the vessel was
unbounded, and Frederick Beck, with whom he had established a close
friendship since that little affair with the other's grandfather, when
Gjert had saved him from punishment, could not tell him half enough.
"Fancy," he thought, "to be able to go about in a uniform all covered
with gold like the officers there on board!" He could think and talk of
nothing else all the time they were sailing home next day.

The wind had risen to half a gale, and they had three reefs in the
mainsail. His father, who for some days past had been wandering with
increasing frequency up to the flag-staff, or down to the quay, where he
would stand with his hand behind his back alone, and look about him in
an eager, restless way--sure signs that he was getting tired of being on
land--had been up several times to look out for the boy, and was now
sitting in the house, pasting together an old chart, as his son came up
from the quay shouting out the new song at the top of his voice against
the wind. He stopped in the porch to collect his breath to give the last
stanza with effect, and husband and wife as they listened exchanged
glances.

It was easy to see when he came in that he was bursting with the
consciousness of having all sorts of wonderful things to relate. His
mother had just laid the table for their evening meal, and as he greeted
them in an off-hand sort of way, he drew a chair over to the table at the
same time, that he might be ready to fall to the moment the food was set
down.

"Well, Gjert," said his mother, after he had sat and looked round him
for a moment or two, evidently expecting to be invited to gratify their
curiosity, "were you on board?"

"Not myself; but I talked to others who had been. For that matter I saw
everything that was to be seen," he assured them with a self-conscious
nod, reaching over at the same time for a crust of bread--"from the
topmast of the Antonia, a schooner that was lyin