Nothing was done about the second mate’s berth for more than a week, and I did not happen to hear him mentioned, although I have an idea that the captain talked the matter over with Mr. Baker. At last, however, he acted, having concluded, as I supposed, that there was little chance of getting Mr. Wallet back. There was some show of letting the men choose, but it amounted to nothing. Macy was made fifth mate, and the other mates moved up a peg, so that Mr. Brown was second mate. That pleased me, and the appointment of Macy pleased Peter, for he said that there was not a better man on the ship. I agreed with him in that. Macy was one of the finest specimens of man I have ever seen. He was over six feet tall, with a perfectly proportioned figure, but his perfect proportions did not give an adequate idea of his size unless he stood beside another man. He had rather tightly curling flaxen hair—we called him “Towhead”—and deep blue eyes, and a smile that won the heart of every one on whom it shone. I felt that I should like to know him well, but it was not easy to know him well. There was about him a certain atmosphere of aloofness. No doubt this was due largely to a natural shyness; but, knowing {172} less about such things then than I do now, I ascribed it to a feeling of superiority on his part. That was his reputation on the ship, a reputation which he did not deserve. He was a silent giant, not given to useless motions, but you felt his power and his alertness. It used to give me great pleasure merely to look at Macy. Unfortunately, we were now one man short, and the vacancy was in Mr. Brown’s boat, for Starbuck had been moved into Macy’s place in Mr. Baker’s boat, again over the head of the man to whom the promotion would naturally fall. This was Ezra Winslow, a good-natured young fellow, but rather stupid, and not nearly as good a man as the Prince. There were few men in the whole crew who were anywhere near as good as the Prince, and there was another boatsteerer needed, and he was it. I do not know whether it was the usual practice, in cases of the promotion of mates, for the mates who were moved up to keep the boats and crews they had had before, but they did in this case. The Prince was therefore Mr. Brown’s boatsteerer. The vacancy in his boat was not filled for some time, but it worked out very well for me. {173} CHAPTER XVIII