"Jim, here's some soap for you. If there's any of it left by the time we're in the North Atlantic, there'll be trouble." As the boy finished his toilet the rover called to him, and pointing upwards, said: "Do you see that star, Jim? That's 'Aldebaran,' the eye of Taurus, the bull, the second sign of the zodiac. Doesn't he shine plain? He's easy to see, isn't he? But suppose he was all coal-dust and dirt! We shouldn't be able to see him, should we? In the same way, if you're all dirty and covered with coal-dust, instead of being well polished by soap and water, how do you expect your guardian angel to watch over you? Why, he'd lose you amongst all the other specks of dirt on this earth, and never find you again; then you'd be an easy thing for the old gentleman with a forked tail, eh, sonny?" "I'm afeard then, Jack, my guardian angel ain't never see'd me since I was born, for I don' ever remember bein' clean 'ceptin' lately," said the boy mournfully. "Well, cheer up, old son! I expect he's got his eye on you all right all the same," declared the other heartily, alarmed by the seriousness with which Jim took his remarks. Then, searching round for an idea whereby to soften his statements, he spied Sam. "Don't you be down-hearted, Jim," he went on. "Look at Sam. How would you expect his guardian angel to see him? Yet he does, notwithstanding his colour." "But Sam do shine be-e-autiful when he's hot," declared the boy. This last was too much for Jack; he lay back and roared, whilst Jim's big brown eyes watched him in wonder. But the men forward were rather huffed by Jack's friendship with the boy. "Fust time h'I ever see'd the cock o' the foc's'le pal up with the ship's boy," grunted the cockney one day. "You just be keerful what you say, Hollins," said Red Bill. "I just gave the little nipper a clout on the jaw t'other day for giving me sauce, when up jumps Derringer. "'Leave that kid alone,' sezzee. "'Mind yer own bloomin' bizness,' sez I; an' before I knows where I am, I'm lyin' on my back on the deck with a bump the size of a two-sheave block on the side of my head." "'E calls 'im Jim, too," went on the scandalised cockney. "Might be bruvers, the way Jack spiles 'im. Kids want kickin'--h'it's the on'y way ter teach 'em." But to return to the cat. It was close on eight bells in the afternoon watch. The _Higgins_ lay rolling in a heavy swell, with her courses hauled up; the sun was obscured, and heavy rain-clouds hung over the horizon. There was not the slightest breath of wind, and the ship echoed with the slating and flogging of her sails as she rolled. A continuous stream of water gushed in through her ports, and poured in a cascade first one way and then the other across the maindeck. The port watch were on deck, busy "sand and canvassing" the main and fore fife-rails, preparatory to revarnishing.