fact, I don't like
lending my clothes. I'm rather pertickler. You might have a fit in
THEM."

"You won't lend 'em to me?" asked the skipper.

"I won't," said the mate, speaking loudly, and frowning significantly at
the crew, who were listening.

"Very good," said the skipper. "Ted, come here. Where's your other
clothes?"

"I'm very sorry, sir," said Ted, shifting uneasily from one leg to the
other, and glancing at the mate for support; "but they ain't fit for
the likes of you to wear, sir." "I'm the best judge of that," said the
skipper sharply. "Fetch 'em up."

"Well, to tell the truth, sir," said Ted, "I'm like the mate. I'm only
a poor sailor-man, but I wouldn't lend my clothes to the Queen of
England."

"You fetch up them clothes," roared the skipper snatching off his bonnet
and flinging it on the deck. "Fetch 'em up at once. D'ye think I'm going
about in these petticuts?"

"They're my clothes," muttered Ted doggedly.

"Very well, then, I'll have Bill's," said the skipper. "But mind you,
my lad, I'll make you pay for this afore I've done with you. Bill's the
only honest man aboard this ship. Gimme your hand, Bill, old man."

"I'm with them two," said Bill gruffly, as he turned away.

The skipper, biting his lips with fury, turned from one to the other,
and then, with a big oath, walked forward. Before he could reach the
fo'c'sle Bill and Ted dived down before him, and, by the time he had
descended, sat on their chests side by side confronting him. To threats
and appeals alike they turned a deaf ear, and the frantic skipper was
compelled at last to go on deck again, still encumbered with the hated
skirts.

"Why don't you go an' lay down," said the mate, "an' I'll send you down
a nice cup o' hot tea. You'll get histericks, if you go on like that."

"I'll knock your 'ead off if you talk to me," said the skipper.

"Not you," said the mate cheerfully; "you ain't big enough. Look at that
pore fellow over there."

The skipper looked in the direction indicated, and, swelling with
impotent rage, shook his fist fiercely at a red-faced man with grey
whiskers, who was wafting innumerable tender kisses from the bridge of a
passing steamer.

"That's right," said the mate approvingly; "don't give 'im no
encouragement. Love at first sight ain't worth having."

The skipper, suffering severely from suppressed emotion, went below,
and the crew, after waiting a little while to make sure that he was not
coming up