back respecting me.

"Hoot, mon," he said aside to Ohlsen, the second mate--"Old son of a
gun" as the men used to call him, making a sort of pun on his name--"the
old man's setting up as dominie to teach that bairn how to tak' a sight,
you ken; did you ever see the like? These be braw times when gentlefolk
come to sea for schoolin', and ship cap'ens have to tak' to teachin'
'em!"

Ohlsen didn't reply to this save by a grunt, which might have meant
anything, but I was certain Macdougall was trying to turn me into
ridicule.

Captain Billings, however, did not overhear the remark; and proceeded to
test my accuracy with the sextant, making me take the angle of the sun
and that of the distant land on the port bow. He was delighted when,
afterwards, I had worked out my calculations, based on the sight taken
of the sun's altitude, and, deducting the difference of the ship's mean
time from that observed, found out that our true position on the chart
was very nearly 50 degrees 55 minutes 20 seconds North and 4 degrees 50
minutes 55 seconds West, or about ten miles to the south-west of
Hartland Point on the Devonshire coast. It was all a labour of love,
however, for the land was still within reach, and we had not long taken
our "point of departure;" while soundings could still be had, if we
wished, in thirty fathom water; so, there was no necessity for our
taking an observation so early in the voyage. The skipper only did it
to test my knowledge, and he was perfectly satisfied with the result
apparently.

"Why, Macdougall," he said to the Scotsman, who was waiting by with an
air of ill-concealed triumph on his face, hoping to hear of my failure
to work out the reckoning, "he's a better navigator than you are!"

This, you may be certain, did not please the mate, who muttered
something of it's "all being done by guess work."

But the skipper wouldn't have this at any price.

"No, no, Macdougall," he replied, quickly, "it's all fair and square
calculation, such as I couldn't have managed at his age;" then, turning
to me, he added, kindly, "you stick to it, my lad, and you'll beat us
all with the sextant before we get to Callao!"

The captain desired me, also, to work out the ship's reckoning each day
and to keep a log, the same as the first mate had to do, which that
individual resented as a sort of check exercised upon him, and hated me
accordingly. As I afterwards found out, he was an extremely bad
navigator, and i