ing "about ship"
arises, and all is bustle; ropes rattle, blocks clatter and chirp, yards
creak, and seamen's feet stamp on the deck, while their voices aid their
hands in the hauling of ropes; and soon all is quiet as before. Or,
perhaps, the transition is effected by a squall, and it becomes more
thorough and lasting. One moment everything in nature is hushed under
the influence of what is appropriately enough termed a "dead calm." In
a few seconds a cloud-bank appears on the horizon and one or two
cats-paws are seen shooting over the water. A few minutes more and the
sky is clouded, the glassy sea is ruffled, the pleasant light sinks into
a dull leaden grey, the wind whistles over the ocean, and we are--as far
as feeling is concerned--transported into another, but by no means a
better, world.

Thus it was with our adventurers. The beautiful night merged into a
"dirty" morning, the calm into a breeze so stiff as to be almost a gale,
and when Olaf came out of the cabin, holding tight to the
weather-bulwarks to prevent himself from being thrown into the
lee-scuppers, his inexperienced heart sank within him at the dreary
prospect of the grey sky and the black heaving sea.

But young Olaf came of a hardy seafaring race. He kept his feelings to
himself; and staggered toward Karlsefin, who still stood at his post.
Olaf thought he had been there all night, but the truth was that he had
been relieved by Biarne, had taken a short nap, and returned to the
helm.

Karlsefin was now clad in a rough-weather suit. He wore a pair of
untanned sealskin boots and a cap of the same material, that bore a
strong resemblance in shape and colour to the sou'-westers of the
present day, and his rough heavy coat, closed up to the chin, was in
texture and form not unlike to the pilot-cloth jackets of modern
seamen--only it had tags and loops instead of buttons and button-holes.
With his legs wide apart, he stood at the tiller, round which there was
a single turn of a rope from the weather-bulwarks to steady it and
himself. The boy was clad in miniature costume of much the same cut and
kind, and proud was he to stagger about the deck with his little legs
ridiculously wide apart, in imitation of Thorward and Biarne, both of
whom were there, and had, he observed, a tendency to straddle.

"Come hither, Olaf; and learn a little seamanship," said Karlsefin, with
a good-humoured smile.

Olaf said he would be glad to do that, and made a ru