answered, reciprocating his
friendly advances, as he seemed a nice fellow--much nicer, I thought,
than that little snob Sam Weeks, with his vegetable-marrow sort of face,
my original dislike to the latter being far from lessened by the
observation Jerrold told me he had made about me! "I like things to be
neat and tidy; and as my father used to say, `cleanliness is next to
godliness.'"

"I'm afraid, then," chuckled Tom Jerrold, "we poor sailors are in a bad
way; for, although we live on the water and have the ocean at command, I
don't believe there's a single foremast hand that washes himself oftener
than once a week, at least while he's at sea, from year's end to year's
end."

"Oh!" I exclaimed, making him laugh again at my expression of horror.

"Aye, it is so; I'm telling the truth, as you'll find if you ask the
boatswain, whom I see you've got chummy with already. But, by Jove,
they're just going to set the tops'les; and we'll have the skipper or
old Sandy Saunders after us with a rope's-end if we stop jawing here any
longer."

From the way he spoke you would think we had been talking for a very
long time; but, really, our conversation had only lasted a couple of
minutes or so at the outside, while I was making myself tidy, using a
little pocket-comb my mother had given me just before I left home, to
arrange my hair, instead of imitating Jerrold with his palm brush. I
also utilised the bucket of sea-water as an improvised looking-glass so
as to get the parting of my hair straight and fix my collar.

The ropes I had heard thrown about the decks were the halliards and
clewlines, buntlines, and other gear belonging to the topsails being let
go, the gaskets having been thrown off before I was awake; and now at a
quick word of command from Mr Mackay--"Sheet home!"--the sails on the
fore and main-topsail yards were hauled out to the ends of the clews and
set, the canvas being thus extended to its full stretch.

Then followed the next order.

"Man the topsail halliards!"

Thereupon the yards were swung up and the sails expanded to the breeze;
and then, the outer jib being hoisted at the same time and the lee-
braces hauled in, the man at the wheel putting the helm up the while,
the ship payed off on the port tack, making over towards the French
coast so as to take advantage of the tide running down Channel on that
side. At the same time, the towing-hawser which had up to now still
attached us to the tug, was