You
don't look so very strong, either."
"I think that it is knack more than strength," Dick replied. "I have
done a lot of practice at climbing, for I have always wanted to get
strong, and I heard that there was no better exercise."
When, presently, Dick went aft to the quarterdeck, Captain Barstow
said to him:
"You have astonished us all, lad. I could hardly believe my eyes, when
I saw you going up that rope. I first caught sight of you when you had
climbed but twenty feet, and wondered how far you would get, at that
pace. I would have wagered a hundred guineas to one that you would not
have kept it up to the top.
"Well, lad, whatever profession you take to, it is certain that you
will be a good sailor spoilt."
They had now been three weeks out, but had made slow progress, for the
winds had been light, and mostly from the southwest.
"This is very dull work," the doctor said to Dick one day, at dinner.
"Here we are, three weeks out, and still hardly beyond the Channel.
There is one consolation. It is not the fault of the ship. She has
been doing well, under the circumstances, but the fates have been
against her, thus far. I have no doubt there are a score of ships
still lying in the Downs, that were there when we passed; and, tedious
as it has been beating down the Channel, with scarce wind enough most
of the time to keep our sails full, it would have been worse lying
there, all the time.
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