story. What is it? Where'd you get it from?' ses he.

"'I brought the ingredients aboard with me,' ses the mate. 'It's a
wonderful medicine discovered by my grandmother, an' if I might only try
it I'd thoroughly cure them pore chaps.'

"'Rubbish!' ses the skipper.

"'Very well, sir,' ses the mate, shrugging his shoulders. "O' course, if
you won't let me you won't. Still I tell you, if you'd let me try I'd
cure 'em all in two days. That's a fair challenge.'

"Well, they talked, and talked, and talked, until at last the skipper
give way and went down below with the mate, and told the chaps they was
to take the new medicine for two days, jest to prove the mate was wrong.

"'Let pore old Dan try it first, sir,' ses Harry, starting up, an'
sniffing as the mate took the cork out; 'he's been awful bad since
you've been away.'

"'Harry's worse than I am, sir,' ses Dan; 'it's only his kind heart that
makes him say that.'

"'It don't matter which is fust,' ses the mate, filling a tablespoon
with it, 'there's plenty for all. Now, Harry.'

"'Take it,' ses the skipper.

"Harry took it, an' the fuss he made you'd ha' thought he was swallering
a football. It stuck all round his mouth, and he carried on so dredful