t
the loyalty she claimed. Had any one asked him in that hour to
enter her service, he would have stepped on board her war-ships
with the utmost enthusiasm.

But nobody did ask him, and he found more commonplace employment
on the _Elizabeth_, a trig, well-built schooner, trading to the
Mediterranean for fruits and other products of the Orient. The
position was the very one his father had so earnestly desired.
Touching first at one historic city and then at another, living in
the sunshine, and seeing the most picturesque side of civilization,
David added continually to the store of those impressions which
go to make up the best part of life.

The captain of the _Elizabeth_ owned the vessel and was very fond
of her; consequently he was not long in finding out the splendid
sea qualities of the young Shetlander. On the fourth voyage he made
David his mate, and together they managed the _Elizabeth_ so cleverly
that she became famous for her speed and good fortune. It was indeed
wonderful to see what consciousness and sympathy they endowed her
with.

"_Elizabeth_ is behaving well," the captain said one morning, as he
watched her swelling canvas and noted her speed.

"There isn't much sea on," answered David; "hardly more than what
we used to call in Shetland 'a northerly lipper.' But yet I don't
like the look to the east'ard and the nor'ard."

"Nor I. You had better tell _Elizabeth_. Talk to her, David; coax
her to hurry and get out of the bay. Promise her a new coat of paint;
say that I think of having her figurehead gilded."

David was used to hearing _Elizabeth_ treated as if she were a
living, reasonable creature, but he always smiled kindly at the
imputation; it touched something kindred in his own heart, and he
replied:

"She'll do her best if she's well handled. It's her life as well as
ours, you know."

"It is; anybody knows that. If you ever went into shipping and
insurance offices, David, you would hear even landsmen say so. They
make all their calculations on the average _life_ of a ship. My lad,
men build her of wood and iron, but there is something more in a
good ship than wood and iron."

"Look to the east, captain."

Then there was the boatswain's whistle, and the shout of sailormen,
and the taking in of sails, and that hurrying and scurrying to make a
ship trig which precedes the certain coming of a great storm. And
the Bay of Biscay is bad quarters in any weather, but in a storm
it defies adeq