these words in the voice of Uncle Ned.

Look in at the clock, Uncle,' said he. He would not look himself, from

horror of the tipplers.

'Him past, matey,' repeated the Hawaiian.

'So much the better for you, Uncle,' he replied; and he gave up the

wheel, repeating the directions as he had received them.

He took two steps forward and remembered his dead reckoning. 'How has

she been heading?' he thought; and he flushed from head to foot. He had

not observed or had forgotten; here was the old incompetence; the slate

must be filled up by guess. 'Never again!' he vowed to himself in silent

fury, 'never again. It shall be no fault of mine if this miscarry.' And

for the remainder of his watch, he stood close by Uncle Ned, and read

the face of the compass as perhaps he had never read a letter from his

sweetheart.

All the time, and spurring him to the more attention, song, loud talk,

fleering laughter and the occasional popping of a cork, reached his ears

from the interior of the house; and when the port watch was relieved

at midnight, Huish and the captain appeared upon the quarter-deck with

flushed faces and uneven steps, the former laden with bottles, the

latter with two tin mugs. Herrick silently passed them by. They hailed

him in thick voices, he made no answer, they cursed him for a churl,

he paid no heed although his belly quivered with disgust and rage. He

The Ebb-Tide