"Perhaps a little of both?" said Boreas, looking up at his prime minister with an enquiring comical twinkle in his one eye. "A single dose of either would do." "Let it be salts then. Get me some hot water, and I'll mix it directly." The bottle of salts was produced, and the Captain proceeded to weigh out a quarter of a pound of salts. "Into how many doses do you propose to divide that quantity?" asked Flora, who was watching his proceedings with considerable interest. "Divide?" said Boreas, emptying the salts into a small tea-cup, which he filled with boiling water; "he must take it at one gulp." "Captain," said Flora, rising, and laying her hand on his arm, as he was leaving the cabin, "you will kill the boy!" "Do you think that such a drop as that would hurt an infant?" said Boreas, holding out the cup. "Why, bless the woman! sailors are not like other folks; they require strong doses." "Captain, I entreat you not to be so rash. Divide the quantity into four parts; add as much more water to each, and give it every four hours, and it will do good. But if you persist in administering it your way, it may be attended with very serious consequences." "Fiddle-de-dee! Mrs. Lyndsay, I'm not going to make a toil of a pleasure. He has to take it, and once will do for all." And, in spite of her remonstrances, the obstinate old fellow went out to administer the terrible dose with his own hands to the patient. It operated as untowardly as Flora had predicted, and the lad came so near his death that the Captain grew alarmed. Perhaps his conscience tormented him not a little, for his previously harsh conduct had been the original cause of the lad's illness. So he gave up all faith in his own medical skill, and resigned the chest, and all its pernicious contents, into Flora's safe keeping. The lad did ultimately recover from the effects of the Captain's doctoring, but he was unable to do much during the rest of the voyage, and crawled about the deck like a living skeleton. If the Captain took little notice of him, he never treated him, or suffered others to treat him, with the brutality which had marked his former conduct towards him. CHAPTER VI. THE LOST JACKET, AND OTHER MATTERS.