22 THE FATTED CALF. 



to shoot the sun " (a frown of perplexity on 

 Dorothy's white forehead) — "I mean, for the old 

 man to take the sun's altitude and see what 

 latitude we were in. That's the only safe way to 

 steer a ship, you know. 



"But that day the quadrant didn't come on 

 deck in time. In fact, it didn't come at all. 



" The old man was frantic. He set all hands 

 searching for me. They hunted in the cabin, 

 they hunted in the fo'c'sle — that's where the 

 sailors live, you know ; you call it ' forecastle,' 

 and that's wrong — and they hunted in the steer- 

 age ; but nobody could find me. 



"Then the old man got anxious. He hailed 

 the men at the mast-heads — wanted to know if 

 they'd seen anything floating on the water astern 

 of the ship, which meant, of course, had the cabin 

 boy gone overboard ? At last the old man got so 

 worried he wasn't content with ordering other 

 folks to hunt, but even turned to and hunted 

 for me himself. 



"Now all this while I was dreaming of an 

 enchanted island, loaded with treasures, and I was 

 just going to be married to the queen of the 

 island, when there came a tremendous yank at my 

 collar, and the old man landed me on the floor 

 with a shock that all but shivered my timbers and 



