While the pilot vessel was standing away, the head-yards of the
_Champion_ were swung round, the sails sheeted home; with a brisk
northerly wind, and under all the canvas she could carry, she ran
quickly down the Irish Channel.

"Here we are away at last," said Captain Tredeagle, as his children
stood by his side; "and now, Walter, we must make a sailor of you as
fast as possible. Don't be ashamed to ask questions, and get
information from any one who is ready to give it. Our old mate, Jacob
Shobbrok, who has sailed with me pretty nearly since I came to sea, is
as anxious to teach you as you can be to get instruction; but remember,
Walter, you must begin at the beginning, and learn how to knot and
splice, and reef, and steer, and box the compass, before you begin on
the higher branches of seamanship. You will learn fast enough, however,
if you keep your eyes and ears open and your wits about you, and try to
get at the why and wherefore of everything. Many fail to be worth much
at sea as well as on shore, because they are too proud to learn their A
B C. Just think of that, my son."

"I will do my best, father, to follow your advice," answered Walter, a
fine lad between fourteen and fifteen years of age. His sister Alice
was two years younger,--a fair, pretty-looking girl, with the hue of
health on her cheeks, which showed that she was well able to endure the
vicissitudes of climate, or any hardships to which she might possibly be
subjected at sea.

When Captain Tredeagle resolved to take his children with him, he had no
expectation of exposing them to dangers or hardships. He had been
thirty years afloat, and had never been wrecked, and he did not suppose
that such an occurrence was ever likely to happen to him. He forgot the
old adage, that "the pitcher which goes often to the well is liable to
be broken at last." He had lost his wife during his previous voyage,
and had no one on whom he could rely to take care of his motherless
children while he was absent from home. Walter had expressed a strong
wish to go to sea, so he naturally took him; and with regard to Alice,
of two evils he chose that which he considered the least. He had seen
the dangers to which girls deprived of a mother's watchful care are
exposed on shore, and he knew that on board his ship, at all events,
Alice would be safe from them. Having no great respect for the ordinary
female accomplishments of music and dancing, he felt himself fu