kind smiles.
"The name suits me, and I suit the name; so I do not quarrel with it.
You'll have to learn the names, pretty quickly too, of all the people on
board. There are a good many of us, and each and every one of them will
consider himself your master, and you'll have to look out to please them
all."

"I'll do my best to please them, Mr Poplar," said I.

"That's right! But I say, lad, don't address me so. Call me plain
Peter, or Peter Poplar; we don't deal in misters aboard the _Rainbow_.
It is all very well for shore-going people to call each other mister; or
when you speak to an officer, just to show that he is an officer; but
sharp's the word with us forward--we haven't time for compliments."

"But I thought you were an officer, Peter," said I. "You look like
one."

"Do I?" he answered, with his pleasant smile. "Well, Jack, perhaps I
ought to have been one, and it's my own fault that I am not. But the
truth is, I haven't got the learning necessary for it. I never have
learned to read, and so I haven't been able to master navigation.
Without it, you know, a man cannot be an officer, however good a seaman
he may be; and in that point I'll yield to no man."

Peter, as he spoke, drew himself up to his full height, and I thought he
looked fit to be a very great officer indeed; even to be an admiral,
such as the old gentleman in the office had spoken of.

"I am very bad at my books too," said I. "I can just read a little
though, and if I can get the chance of falling in with a book, I'll like
to read to you, Peter."

My friend thanked me, but said books were not often seen aboard the
_Rainbow_; nor were they found in many other merchant-craft, for that
matter, in those days.

We found the brig just ready to haul out into the outer basin,
preparatory to putting to sea. She was a fine large craft, and had been
built for a privateer in the war-time. Her heavy guns had been landed,
but she still carried some eight six-pounders; and as she had a strong
crew of fully twenty men, she was well able to defend herself from any
piratical craft, or other gentry of that description.

When Peter first took me on board, some of the seamen would scarcely
believe I was the same little boy they had seen at the fair, I looked so
much stouter and stronger in my seaman's dress. I did not much like the
look of the forepeak, into which Peter introduced me, telling me that it
was to be my house and home for the next fe