ch more amiable tone of
voice, to Tim's great surprise.

"Send him aft, bosun, and I'll talk to him now instead of to-morrow, as
I said."

"Aye, aye, sorr," replied Tim; and, presently, the stowaway, who looked
none the worse for his fall, came shambling sheepishly up the poop
ladder, Tim following in his wake, and saying as he ushered him into the
captain's presence, "Here he is, sorr."

"Well, you rascal," exclaimed Captain Gillespie, looking at him up and
down with his squinting eyes and sniffing, taking as good stock of him
as the faint light would permit, "what have you got to say for
yourself--eh?"

"Oi dunno," answered the ragged lad, touching his forelock and making a
scrape back with his foot, in deferential salute. "Of's got nowt ter
say, only as Oi'll wark me pessage if you'll let me be, and dunno put me
in that theer dark pit agin."

"Do you know you're liable to three months imprisonment with hard labour
for stowing yourself aboard my ship?" replied Captain Gillespie, paying
no attention to his words apparently, and going on as if he had not
spoken. "What will you do if I let you off?"

"Oi'll wark, measter," cried the other eagerly. "Oi'll wark loike a
good un, Oi will, sure, if you lets Oi be."

"Ha, humph! I'll give you a try, then," jerked out Old Jock with a
snort, after another nautical inspection of the new hand; "only, mind
you don't go tumbling off the yard again. I don't want any accidents on
board my ship, although I expect every man to do his duty; and when I
say a thing I mean a thing. What's your name--eh?"

"Oi be called Joe Fergusson, measter," replied the shock-headed fellow,
moving rather uneasily about and shuffling his feet on the deck, the
captain's keen quizzical glance making him feel a bit nervous. "My
mates at whoam, though, names me, and the folk in Lancacheer tew, `Joey
the moucher.'"

"Oh, then, Master Joey, you'll find you can't mooch here, my lad,"
retorted Old Jock, glad of the opportunity of having one of his personal
jokes, and sniggering and snorting over it in fine glee. "However, I'll
forgive you coming aboard on the promise of your working your passage to
China; but, you won't find that child's play, my joker! Fergusson, I'll
enter you on the ship's books and you'll be rated as an able seaman, for
you look as if you had the makings of one in you from the way you've
tried already to earn your keep."

"Thank ye koindly, measter," stammered out the red