apted to exist upon light fare.

"Well," observed the captain, "the doctor and I shall make a careful
calculation and let you know the result by supper-time, when the new
system shall be commenced. What think you, Ailie, my pet, will you be
able to stand it?"

"Oh yes, papa, I don't care how much you reduce my allowance."

"What! don't you feel hungry?"

"No, not a bit."

"Not ready for supper?"

"Not anxious for it, at any rate."

"Och! I wish I wos you," murmured Briant, with a deep sigh. "I think I
could ait the foresail, av it wos only well biled with the laste
possible taste o' pig's fat."

By supper-time the captain announced the future daily allowance, and
served it out.

Each man received a piece of salt junk--that is, salt beef--weighing
exactly one ounce; also two ounces of broken biscuit; a small piece of
tobacco, and a quarter of a pint of water. Although the supply of the
latter was small, there was every probability of a fresh supply being
obtained when it chanced to rain, so that little anxiety was felt at
first in regard to it; but the other portions of each man's allowance
were weighed with scrupulous exactness, in a pair of scales which were
constructed by Tim Rokens out of a piece of wood--a leaden musket-ball
doing service as a weight.

Ailie received an equal portion with the others, but Jacko was doomed to
drag out his existence on a very minute quantity of biscuit and water.
He utterly refused to eat salt junk, and would not have been permitted
to use tobacco even had he been so inclined, which he was not.

Although they were thus reduced to a small allowance of food--a smaller
quantity than was sufficient to sustain life for any lengthened period--
no one in the slightest degree grudged Jacko his small portion. All the
men entertained a friendly feeling to the little monkey, partly because
it was Ailie's pet, and partly because it afforded them great amusement
at times by its odd antics.

As for Jacko himself, he seemed to thrive on short allowance, and never
exhibited any unseemly haste or anxiety at meal-times. It was observed,
however, that he kept an uncommonly sharp eye on all that passed around
him, as if he felt that his circumstances were at that time peculiar and
worthy of being noted. In particular he knew to a nicety what happened
to each atom of food, from the time of its distribution among the men to
the moment of its disappearance within their hungry jaws, and