A flagstaff stood in the garden on a grassy platform, half-way down the cliff-side, and the boy at his earnest wish had been given charge of it. On weekdays, as a rule he hoisted two flags--an ensign on the gaff, and a single code-flag at the mast-head; but on Sundays he usually ran up three or four, and with the help of the code-book spelt out some message to the harbour. Sometimes, too, if an old friend happened to take up her moorings at the red buoy below, he would have her code-letters hoisted to welcome her, or would greet and speed her with such signals as K.T.N., "Glad to see you," and B.R.D., or B.Q.R., meaning "Good-bye," "A pleasant passage." Skippers fell into the habit of dipping their flags to him as they were towed out to sea, and a few amused themselves while at anchor by pulling out their bags of bunting and signalling humorous conversations, though their topmasts reached so near to the boy's platform that they might with less labour have talked through a speaking-trumpet. One morning before Christmas six vessels lay below at the buoy, moored stem to stem in two tiers of three; and, after hoisting his signal (C.P.B.H. for "Christmas Eve"), he ran indoors with the news that all six were answering with bushes of holly at their topmast heads, while one--a Danish barquentine--had rove stronger halliards and carried a tall fir-tree at the main, its branches reaching many feet above her truck. "Christmas is Christmas," said his nurse. "When I was young, at such times there wouldn't be a ship in the harbour without its talking-bush." "What is a talking-bush?" the boy asked. "And you pretend to be a sailor! Well, well--not to know what happens on Christmas night when the clocks strike twelve!" The boy's eyes grew round. "Do--the--ships--talk?" "Why, of course they do! For my part, I wonder what Billy teaches you." Late that evening, when the household supposed him to be in bed, the boy crept down through the moonlit garden to the dinghy which Billy had left on its frape under the cliff. But for their riding-lights, the vessels at the buoy lay asleep. The crews of the foreigners had turned in; the _Nubian_, of Runcorn, had no soul on board but a night-watchman, now soundly dozing in the forecastle; and the _Touch-me-not_ was deserted. The _Touch-me-not_ belonged to the port, and her skipper, Captain Tangye, looked after her in harbour when he had paid off all hands. Usually he slept on board; but to-night, after trimming his lamp, he had rowed ashore to spend Christmas with his family--for which, since he owned a majority of the shares, no one was likely to blame him. He had even left the accommodation-ladder hanging over her side, to be handy for boarding her in the morning. All this the boy had noted; and accordingly, having pushed across in the dinghy, he climbed the _Touch-me-not's_ ladder and dropped upon deck with a bundle of rugs and his father's greatcoat under his arm.