"I'm in a nice fix, ain't I? I don't know any more about cooking than a hog does about gunpowder."
"I will assist you all I can," said Frank; "but I wonder what we shall have for dinner? I hope it will be something good, for I'm as hungry as a bear."
At this moment the whistle of the boatswain's mate sounded through the ship, and that personage passed them and called out, in a low voice:
"Mess cook Number Twenty-five!"
"He means me, don't he?" inquired Archie, turning to his cousin.
"I don't know, I'm sure. Ask him."
"Mess cook Number Twenty-five," again shouted the mate.
"Here I am," said Archie.
"Well, you ought to be somewhere else," said the mate, sharply. "Why don't you go and draw your rations?"
"I don't know where I should go," answered Archie.