ome to that yet," replied Jack.

"And that any propelled body striking against another flies off at a
tangent?"

"Very likely," replied Jack, "that is a _sine_ that he don't like it."

"You have not yet entered into _acute_ trigonometry?"

"Not come to that yet," replied Jack.

"That will require very sharp attention."

"I should think so," replied Jack.

"You will then find out how your parallels of longitude and latitude
meet."

"Two parallel lines, if continued to infinity, will never meet," replied
Jack.

"I beg your pardon," said the gunner.

"I beg yours," said Jack.

Whereupon Mr Tallboys brought up a small map of the world, and showed
Jack that all the parallels of latitude met at a point at the top and
bottom.

"Parallel lines never meet," replied Jack, producing Hamilton Moore.

Whereupon Jack and the gunner argued the point, until it was agreed to
refer the case to Mr Jolliffe, who asserted, with a smile, that those
lines were parallels and not parallels.

As both were right, both were satisfied.

It was fortunate that Jack would argue in this instance: had he believed
all the confused assertions of the gunner, he would have been as puzzled
as the gunner himself. They never met without an argument and a
reference, and as Jack was put right in the end, he only learned the
faster. By the time that he did know something about navigation he
discovered that his antagonist knew nothing. Before they arrived at
Malta Jack could fudge a day's work.

But at Malta Jack got into another scrape. Although Mr Smallsole could
not injure him, he was still Jack's enemy; the more so as Jack had
become very popular: Vigors also submitted, planning revenge; but the
parties in this instance were the boatswain and purser's steward. Jack
still continued his forecastle conversation with Mesty; and the
boatswain and purser's steward, probably from their respective ill-will
towards our hero, had become great allies. Mr Easthupp now put on his
best jacket to walk the dog-watches with Mr Biggs, and they took every
opportunity to talk at our hero.

"It's my peculiar hopinion," said Mr Easthupp, one evening, pulling at
the frill of his shirt, "that a gentleman should behave as a gentleman,
and that if a gentleman professes hopinions of hequality and such
liberal sentiments, that he is bound as a gentle man to hact up to
them."

"Very true, Mr Easthupp; he is bound to act up to them; and not because
a person,