under
you in good trim,--not too light, not too heavy,--you ought to be able to
live through it. There is no better sailor nor one more familiar with the
islands than the skipper. He is not fond of carrying on, and perhaps at
times we think him a little too prudent, but he generally turns out right;
anyhow, it is a fault on the right side.

"I have sailed under him fifteen years now. I was third mate when I first
joined his ship; not this, you know, but the old _Gertrude_. I have never
had a cross word with him, nor have the other two mates. He expects every
man to do his duty, as is right enough; but if that is done well,
everything goes on smooth. I don't think that there are ten of the crew
who have not been with the skipper for years. When we get back to port and
the crew are paid off, it is always, 'When will you want us again,
captain?' and no matter whether it is in a fortnight or in a couple of
months, pretty nearly every man will turn up."

"That speaks for itself, both as to the owner and the skipper, and the
mates too, Mr. Staines."

"Well, we have not much to do with it. Unless a man does his duty, and
does it pleasantly and without cursing and swearing, he won't make two
voyages under the skipper; indeed he won't make one. Three years ago Towel
was laid up with a hurt he got on the voyage before, and we had to get a
new second mate at the last moment, for Pasley had not got his certificate
then, and couldn't take Towel's place. The man was highly recommended, and
was a good sailor, but he was a bully, and a foul-mouthed one, and the
skipper put him on shore at the Cape, and paid his passage home out of his
own pocket--though I know the owner returned it to him afterwards, and said
that he had done quite right. I tell you, lad, you are lucky in making
your first voyage on board the _Tiger_, for, putting aside everything
else, I don't know a single ship, except Hewson's, where the apprentices
mess with the master and mates, and are treated as they are here.

"I daresay you wonder why some of us have not been apprentices, but it is
only the last two or three years that Hewson's ships have carried them.
Before that there was always a fourth mate to each of his ships, so that
there were two officers in each watch; but the ships have such a good
name, and the owner had so many applications from friends with sons who
wanted to go to sea, that three years ago he made the change. But he is
mighty particular who h