don't let it happen again. Can you read and write?"

"Yes, sir."

"Is this your handwriting on the ship's articles, and in the store-room
account-book?"

"Yes, sir."

"Have you studied arithmetic? Well, then, work me out this example."

Austin obeyed.

"Right," said the captain, glancing at the result. "After this, Mr.
Hurst [the chief engineer] will put you in the place of the oiler who
was lost this morning. The fifty dollars reward is in the purser's
hands, where I advise you to leave it till you really need it. You may
go now. Good-night."

* * * * *

"What! couldn't they make ye nothin' better'n a kettle-iler?" growled
old Herrick, on hearing the result of the interview; for, like a true
sailor of the old school, he abominated everything connected with "that
'ere new-fangled steam." "A _sailor's_ what you're cut out for, and a
sailor's what every man ought to be as can. Howsomdever, there's no fear
but you'll git on well enough with the old man; for he's a good feller,
if ever there was one. We shipped together for our first v'y'ge, him and
me, when we were no bigger'n you are; and if we ever part comp'ny agin,
'twon't be _my_ fault, anyhow."

[TO BE CONTINUED.]

HOUSEHOLD PETS.

An amusing story is told of a modern puss which sailed across the seas.
A Polynesian missionary took a cat with him to the island of Raratonga,
but Puss, not liking her new abode, fled to the mountains. One of the
new converts, a priest who had destroyed his idol, was one night,
sleeping on his mat, when his wife, who sat watching beside him, was
terribly alarmed by the sight of two small fires gleaming in the
doorway, and by the sound of a plaintive and mysterious voice. Her blood
curdling with fear, she awoke her husband, with wifely reproaches on his
folly in having burned his god, who was now come to be avenged on them.

The husband, opening his eyes, saw the same glaring lamps, heard the
same dismal sound, and, in an agony of fright, began to recite the
alphabet, by way of an incantation against the powers of darkness. The
cat on hearing the loud voices felt as much alarm as she had caused, and
fled in the darkness, leaving the worthy pair much relieved.

A short while afterward Puss took up her quarters in a retired temple,
where her "mews" struck terror into the breasts of the priest and
worshippers who came with offerings to the gods. They fled in all
directions, shouting, "A