WE AND THE WORLD.

By J. H. Ewing, Author of Six to Sixteen,' &c.

CHAPTER III.

"The mariners shout,

The ships swing about,

The yards are all hoisted,

The sails flutter out."-The Saga of King Olaf.

HE docks were very quiet now. Only a few footfalls broke the silence, and the water sobbed a little round the piles, and there was some creaking and groaning and grinding, and the vessels drifted at their moorings, and bumped against the wharves.

The watchman paced up and down, and up and down. I did not hear him very clearly from under the tarpaulin, and sometimes when he went farther away I did not hear him at all. At last I was so long without hearing him that I peeped cautiously out. What Biddy had said might be, seemed really to have happened. The watchman was sitting in a sort of armchair of ironbound cotton bales; his long coat was tucked between his legs, his hat was over his nose, and he was fast asleep.

I did not need any one to tell me that now was my time; but it was with limbs that almost refused their office from sheer fright, that I crept past the sleeping man, and reached the edge of the wharf. There was the vessel moving very slightly, and groaning dismally as she moved, and there was the hole, and it was temptingly dark. But the gangway that had been laid across to it from the wharf was gone! I could have jumped the chasm easily with a run, but I dared not take a run. If I did it at all it must be done standing. I tried to fetch a breath free from heart-throbs, but in vain; so I set my teeth, and pulled nerves and sinews together and jumped.

It was too much for me, and I jumped short, and fell. Then my training under the half-caste told in my favour. I caught the edge of the hole with my hands, and swung suspended over the water, with

quite presence of mind enough to bear and think of what was going on about me. What I heard was the watchman, who roused up to call out, "Who's there?" and then he shot a sharp ray of light from his lantern right into the ship between the doors. It was very lucky for me that I was so low, for the light went over my head, and he saw nothing of me, my dark clothes making no mark against the ship's black hull.

My head was cool enough now, and my heart steady, and I listened with an intensity that postponed fear, though my predicament was not a pleasant one, and the rippling water below me was confusing. The watchman's footing was very unsteady, as I could hear, and the light wobbled about alarmingly, but happily it only went upwards. The worst risk I ran was that he might stumble forward (for he was evidently stupefied by drink) and fall into the dock, carrying me down with him. Biddy had done her generous best for me, but I had leisure now for very cool reflection on the miserable death that might be close to both me and the man she had befooled on my behalf, from too base a cause to be a good thought for one's last hour. It was not the least sharp of many experiences which ought, goodness knows! to have effectually taught me that the only safe way.in this mazy world is the narrow way of uprightness, and that one may keep the last bitter drop out of one's worst of misfortune if one keeps it free from remorse.

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The suspense was no doubt shorter than it seemed, before the light disappeared, and with a thankful heart I distinctly heard the watchman flop down again among the cotton bales. Then I drew myself up over the edge and crept noiselessly into the ship. I took care to creep beyond range of the lantern, and then the swaying of the vessel made me feel so giddy that I had to lie still for a while where I was, before I could recover myself enough to feel about for a suitable hiding-place.

I had felt my way, and knocked myself pretty hard, and crept and groped for some time before I seized what, in any other circumstances, I should have believed to be a coat-sleeve, with the natural warmth of somebody's arm inside it. I let go at once, and now remained breathlessly quiet, till, as nothing happened, I began to think I had been mistaken, and groped about to find out what it was that had deluded me. I seized it again, but this time there was no

mistake. It was somebody's arm, who said in a quick undertone, "Gently, gently, sirs; I'm coming along with ye. I'll gie ye my word I'm after no harm."

I was taken aback, but thought it well to keep up my position, which appeared to be one of advantage. The young man (for it was a youngster's voice) was evidently no ship's officer. If he were a dockyard-pilferer, it was a nuisance, and a complication in my affairs, but I might pull through the difficulty with presence of mind.

"Speak low!" I whispered sharply. "What's your name, and where do you come from?"

"Alister Auchterlay, they call me " (the whisper was a reluctant one, but I jogged his arm rather fiercely to shake the truth out of him). "I come from Aberdeenshire. But, man! if ye're for having me up in court, for God's sake let me plead in another name, for my mother taks the papers."

"What are you doing here?" I whispered in a not very steady whisper, as I think my prisoner detected.

"I'm just stowing away," he said eagerly; "I'm not harming a thing. Eh, sir, if you're a ship's 'prentice, or whatever may be your duties on this vessel, let me bide! There's scores of stowaways taken every day, and I'll work as few could."

"Do, do try and speak low," I whispered; " or we shall both be found out. I'm stowing away myself!"

"Whew, laddie! How long will ye have been in Liverpool?" "Only to-day. How long have you been here?"

"A week, and a sore week too."

"You've no friends here, have you?"

"Friends, did ye say? I've no friends nearer than Scotland." "You must have had a hard time of it," I whispered.

"Ye may say so. I've slept four nights in the docks, and never managed to stow till to-night. There's a watchman about."

"I know," said I.

"I shouldn't have got in to-night, but the misconducted body's asleep, though I'll say it's the first time I saw him sleeping these four days. Eh, sirs! there's an awful indifference to responsibility, when a man does a thing like that. But it'll be whisky, I'm thinking; for I heard him at havers with one of these ranting drunken old Eirishers."

My blood boiled.

"She was not drunk!" said I. "And she'sshe's a great friend of mine."

"Whisht! whisht, man! We'll be heard. I ask your pardon,

I'm sure."

I made no reply. The Scotchman's tone was unpleasantly dry. Besides it is very difficult to give vent to one's just indignation in whispers. And I still felt giddy, though I was resting my back against some box, the Scotchman's head being apparently at the level of my knee.

"You'll not be Eirish, yourself?" he asked in his own accent, which was as strong in its way as Biddy's.

"I'm English," I said.

"Just so.

And edyucated, I dare to say?" "I suppose so."

"Ye've not forgiven me that I wronged the old lady? Indeed, but I ask your pardon, and hers no less. It's not for the best of us to sit in judgment on the erring, as my mother has often said to me, unless it comes in the plain path of duty. But maybe your own temper would be a bit soured if your head were as light and your heart as sick as mine with starvation and hope deferred

"Are you hungry?" I interrupted.

"I'll not be sorry when we get a meal."

"What have you had to-day?" I asked.

"I've been in the dock all day," he answered evasively, "but I'm no great eater at the best of times, and I chewed two bits of orangepeel, not to speak of a handful of corn where there was a big heap had been spilt by some wasteful body or another, that had small thoughts of it's coming to use. Now hoo in this world's a man to make honest profit on a commodity he entrusts"

"Sh! sh! You're raising your voice again," said I. "Where's your hand? It's only a cake, but it'll be better than nothing." And I held out the cake Biddy had made me put in my pocket.

“I'll not take it from ye. Keep it for your own needs; I'm harder than yourself, it's likely," he said, pushing my hand aside, and added almost peevishly, "but keep the smell of it from me."

"I can spare it perfectly," I whispered. "I've had plenty to eat quite lately."

I shall never forget how he clutched it then. I could hear his teeth