cidents I am about to relate.

CHAPTER FIVE.

One of the disagreeables which a boy-sailor encounters on first going to
sea is the being compelled to mount up "aloft." If the master of the
vessel be a man of considerate feelings, he will allow the apprentice a
little time to get over the dread of climbing, by sending him only into
the lower rigging, or no higher than the main or foretop. He will
practise him a good deal upon the "shrouds," so as to accustom his feet
and fingers to the "ratlines" and other ropes, and will even permit him
to pass a number of times through the "lubber's hole," instead of
forcing him to climb back downwards by the "futtock shrouds."

A few trials of this kind will take away the giddiness felt on first
mounting to a high elevation, and thus a boy may safely be denied the
use of the lubber's hole, and may be sent up the futtock shrouds, and
after that the topgallant shrouds, and so on to the royals,--if there be
any on the ship,--and by thus gradually inducting him into the art of
climbing, he will get over the difficulty without dread and without
peril--for both of these may be encountered in first climbing to the
upper rigging of a ship. It is usual then for masters, who are humane,
to permit boys to become somewhat accustomed to the handling of ropes
before sending them into the highest rigging.

But, alas! there are many who have not this consideration, and it is not
uncommon for a youth, fresh from home and school, to be ordered up to
the topgallant crosstrees, or even the royal-yard, at the very first go,
and of course his life is imperilled by the ascent. Not unfrequent have
been the instances in which the lives of boys have been sacrificed in
this very way.

Now it so happened that for two weeks after I had set foot upon board
the _Pandora_ I had never been ordered aloft. I had not even had
occasion to ascend the lower shrouds, though I had done so of my own
will, as I was desirous of learning to climb. In all my life I had
never been higher than the branches of an apple-tree; and since I had
now chosen the sea for my profession--though I sadly repented my
choice--I felt that the sooner I learnt to move about among the rigging
the better.

But, singular to say, for the first two weeks after embarking myself on
the _Pandora_ I found but little opportunity of practising. Once or
twice I had climbed up the ratlines, and crawled through the lubber's
hole to the maintop; a