the calm harbour. "I
feel as well as I ever did in my life."

"You must take care not to pitch head foremost overboard, as you were
nearly doing this morning," observed Jack; "you might not be as
fortunate as I was--to be picked up again."

"Why, I forgot that there was the water between you and me; and when you
shouted out I was going to run up and shake hands," was the answer.

The fact was that Dick, while we were near the Dolphin, was as nearly as
possible walking overboard, with the intention of getting on her deck,
and would have done so had not Truck hauled him back. Dick had no
notion of which was the stem and which the stern of the vessel, or how
the wind acted on the sails; nor could he make out why we tacked; and
several times he asked how it was that we did not sail directly towards
the point to which we wished to go.

"I say, what do you call that stick in the middle of the boat?" he
asked, after he had been on board some hours; "and that other one
running out at one end; and why has your uncle's vessel got two sticks
and you only one; if one is enough, why should he have two?"

I explained that our vessel was a cutter, and that the Dolphin was a
schooner, and that the stick running out at one end was the bowsprit, on
which the jib was set to turn the head of the vessel either one way or
the other.

"Nothing like asking questions," observed papa, when we laughed at Dick.
"Stick to the custom, my boy, and you'll soon know as much as these
youngsters. A person who is afraid of asking questions remains in
ignorance."

As may be supposed, Dick hit his head pretty hard against the beam above
him several times before he learned to roll into his berth after the
most approved fashion.

Soon after daybreak we were on deck in our shirts, intending to jump
overboard and take a swim. Jack and Oliver made their appearance at the
same moment on board the Dolphin, and shouting to us, overboard they
went, and came swimming up. I, pulling my shirt over my head, followed
their example. Dick, forgetting to pull off his shirt, with wonderful
courage--which arose, however, from ignorance--plunged after me, when to
our dismay we discovered that he had no notion of swimming. I was
already some distance from the side of the vessel.

Poor Dick began splashing about, and striking out as he had seen me do;
but, beginning to sink, he shouted out, "Help, help!"

Fortunately, Captain Truck saw him, and hove a grating