the day into three spells; and we took it in turns to sleep our
eight hours and be awake sixteen. So the ship was well looked
after, with two of us always on duty.

Besides that, Polynesia, who was an older sailor than any of us,
and really knew a lot about running ships, seemed to be always
awake--except when she took her couple of winks in the sun,
standing on one leg beside the wheel. You may be sure that no
one ever got a chance to stay abed more than his eight hours
while Polynesia was around. She used to watch the ship's clock;
and if you overslept a half-minute, she would come down to the
cabin and peck you gently on the nose till you got up.

I very soon grew to be quite fond of our funny black friend
Bumpo, with his grand way of speaking and his enormous feet which
some one was always stepping on or falling over. Although he was
much older than I was and had been to college, he never tried to
lord it over me. He seemed to be forever smiling and kept all of
us in good humor. It wasn't long before I began to see the
Doctor's good sense in bringing him--in spite of the fact that he
knew nothing whatever about sailing or travel.

On the morning of the fifth day out, just as I was taking the
wheel over from the Doctor, Bumpo appeared and said,

"The salt beef is nearly all gone, Sir."

"The salt beef!" cried the Doctor. "Why, we brought a hundred
and twenty pounds with us. We couldn't have eaten that in five
days. What can have become of it?"