“Yes, sir,” answered Billy, and he still spoke with the old-fashioned deliberation that Mr. Wentworth had noticed the evening before at the landing.
As he sat down, Mr. Jackson asked: “Well, how do you like it, Bill, as far as you have got?”
“I like it first rate, uncle; seems to me I’m seeing something new every minute, and I like it, too! I find I get twisted with so many new names of things, but I guess that will get all straightened out in a few days.”
“What do you find hardest, Bill?”
“Well, I guess it’s hardest for me to remember to stand up straight; but that ‘B. M.’ of mine—what’s his name—he’s a pretty good sort of a fellow, and gives me a dig in the ribs now and then; and then there’s Dick—I don’t know his last name—he’s a good ’un! Oh! That reminds me,” exclaimed Billy suddenly, “I had almost forgotten something!”
Then turning to the Chairman:
“Will you please tell me, sir, where I can find the key of the keelson?”
A faint smile played over the Chairman’s face as he asked the boy why he wanted it.
“Well, the quartermaster, I think they call him, told me to get it, because the ‘B. M.’ asked him for it, and he said he had not seen it for some time; so I went and asked the messenger, and he didn’t know where it was, and sent me to the boatswain; and the boatswain, he didn’t know where it was, and sent me to the mate, and the mate sent me to the Officer of the Day, and he said I’d better ask the Chairman of the Committee. It’s a mighty funny thing how a thing like that can get lost on board ship, for I haven’t noticed many things lying around loose.”
The Chairman was silent for a few seconds, and then, “It is a funny thing, Brown,” said he, “but I’ll tell you what you do. The Captain is down in the cabin at this moment. You go and report to him from me, tell him your story, and say that I am sure that he can help you out.”