HOMEWARD BOUND. 125

crew came on board intoxicated, it caused him no slight
amount of worriment and vexation.

He had seen such a state of affairs on his father’s ship
each time she was made ready for sea, for, as a rule, the
sailor spends his last hour on shore in befuddling his brain
with liquor, and is seldom fit for duty until his craft is out
of sight of land.

Ben knew perfectly well that he was allowing himself to
be troubled by trifles, and there were ever in his mind the
parting words of his father, to the effect that on the suc-
cess of this voyage depended his future career as a ship-
master. What in other captains would be overlooked, in
him would count as the gravest errors of judgment,
therefore he had determined to watch his officers and crew
as closely as if from them he feared foul play.

The first and second mates understood that their cap-
tain was taking too much upon himself, but they fully
appreciated his position, and the feelings which caused
him to interfere, oftentimes unwarrantably, in their de-
partments, therefore, instead of insisting they should be
left unhampered in their movements, as probably would
have been the case if they had shipped under an older
man, both took good-naturedly all his superfluous as well
as necessary commands and advice.

Miss Dunham also observed the young captain’s anxious
movements, and Tuesday forenoon, half an hour or more
after the pilot had left the ship, she came on to the
quarter-deck where Ben was pacing to and fro as if on
the lookout.