lled out a pocket-compass about the size of an ordinary watch,
which instrument it was his habit to guard with the most anxious care.

"North!" repeated the boy, glancing at the instrument with a look of
surprise, "why, we're steering almost due east!"

"Ah! Ben, that comes of your judging from appearances without
knowledge, not an uncommon state of mind in man and boy, to say nothing
of woman. Don't you know what variation of the compass is?"

"No, father."

"What! have you been so long at sea with me and never heard yet about
the magnetic pole?"

"Never a word, father. It seems to me that poles are multiplying as we
get further north."

"Oh, Benjy, for shame--fie! fie!"

"Maybe if you had told me about it I might have had less to be shamed
of, and you too, father."

"That's true, Benjy. That's true. You're a sharp boy for your age.
But don't be disrespectful to your father, Ben; no good can ever come o'
that. Whatever you are, be respectful to your old father. Come, I'll
tell you about it now."

It will have been observed by this time that little Benjamin Vane was
somewhat free in his converse with his father, but it must not therefore
be supposed that he was really insolent. All his freedom of speech was
vented in good humour, and the Captain knew that. There was, indeed, a
powerful bond not only of affection but of sympathy between the little
delicate boy and the big strong man. They thoroughly understood each
other, and between those who understand each other there may be much
freedom without offence, as everybody knows.

"You must understand," began the Captain, "that although the needle of
the mariner's compass is said to point to the north with its head and to
the south with its tail, it does not do so exactly, because the magnetic
poles do not coincide exactly with the geographical poles. There are
two magnetic poles just as there are two geographical poles, one in the
southern hemisphere, the other in the northern. D'ye understand!"

"Clear as daylight, father."

"Well, Benjy, the famous Arctic discoverer, Sir James Ross, in 1832,
discovered that the northern magnetic pole was situated in the island of
Boothia Felix, in latitude 70 degrees 5 seconds and longitude 96 degrees
46 seconds West. It was discovered by means of an instrument called the
dipping needle, which is just a magnetised needle made for dipping
perpendicularly instead of going round horizontally like the mariner's
co