178 DOGGED JACK.

the continued bad feeling of his persecutor, and it
was given him in this way:
 Jack's hands, unaccustomed to using brooms, or
continual scrubbing in hot water, became greatly
cracked and blistered, and the cook, Billy, who had
now become a great ally of his, went to the steward
of the vessel to beg for some balsam to apply to
them.
 As he was returning across the deck, the first mate
asked him who and what the ointment was for, and
on hearing of its destination, seized it and threw it
into the sea with an oath.
 "I'll have no molly-coddling here, I can tell you,"
he said, with a dark look on his face, and I forbid
you to put anything on that young cur's hands; he
must rough it like the rest. Perhaps he'd like a pair
of white evening gloves to scrub the kids in ?" and
with this parting sneer, he turned on his heel and
walked off.
 One day, shortly after the vessel had started on
its way home, a thick haze came over the sky, and it
at last became so dense that the captain deemed it
wiser to let off steam and lay-to. It was a very sultry
day; there was not a breath of wind to help to
blow the haze away, and the steamer lay on the still
waters, puffing and snorting like some huge indig-
nant monster controlled against its will. As there