ead excellently. He was not very accurate
at figures, but he was bright and quick to learn.

"I guess that will do for to-night," said Mr. Dunn when it came nine
o'clock. "I had most of the stuff checked up before you came aboard,
or there'd have been more to do. However, we'll manage to keep you
busy in the morning."

"I wonder if I'll ever get a chance to learn to be a pilot?" said Nat,
for the purser seemed so friendly that he ventured to speak to him of
that pet ambition.

"I shouldn't wonder. We're not very busy once we get loaded up, and
often when sailing between ports a long distance apart there is little
to do for days at a time. If you want to learn navigation, and Mr.
Weatherby will teach you, I don't see why you can't do it."

"I hope I can."

"Come on, and I'll show you where you'll bunk," went on Mr. Dunn. "You
want to turn out lively at six bells in the morning."

"That's seven o'clock," observed Nat.

"Right you are, my hearty. I see you know a little something about a
ship. That's good. Oh, I guess you'll get along all right."

It seemed to Nat that he had not been asleep at all when six strokes
on a bell, given in the way that sailors ring the time, with short,
double blows, awoke him. He dressed hurriedly, had his breakfast with
the others of the crew, and then did what he could to help the purser,
who had to check up some boxes that arrived at the last minute, just
before the ship sailed.

A little later, amid what seemed a confusion of orders, the _Jessie
Drew_ moved away down the river, and Nat was taking his first voyage
on Lake Michigan as a hand on a ship--a position he had long desired
to fill, but which hitherto had seemed beyond his wildest dreams.

"How do you like it?" asked Mr. Weatherby, a little later, as he
passed the boy on his way to the pilot-house.

"Fine."

"I'm glad of it. Attend strictly to business, and you'll get along.
I'll keep you in mind, and whenever I get a chance I'll take you into
the pilot-house, and begin to instruct you in the method of steering a
ship."

"I'll be ever so much obliged to you if you will."

"Why, that's nothing, after what you did for me," replied Mr.
Weatherby, with a kind smile at Nat.

As sailing on large vessels was not much of a novelty to Nat, except
of late years, since his father's death, he did not linger long on
deck, watching the various sights as the freighter plowed her way out
on Lake Michigan. He went to the purser's