odour arising from the cabin forward, where the boy had been for
some time busily engaged, and soon the whole party were seated on
the lockers in the cabin devouring fried fish.

"Master Chambers," Geoffrey said, "we have got two boiled pullets
in our basket. Had we not better have them for dinner? They were
cooked the evening before we came away, and I should think they
had better be eaten now."

"You had better keep them for yourselves, Master Geoffrey," the
skipper said. "We are accustomed to living on fish, but like enough
you would get tired of it before we got to London."

But this the boys would not hear of, and it was accordingly arranged
that the dinner should be furnished from the contents of the basket.

As soon as tide turned the anchor was hove up and the Susan got under
way again. The boys soon learnt the meaning of the word beating,
and found that it meant sailing backwards and forwards across
the channel, with the wind sometimes on one side of the boat and
sometimes on the other. Geoffrey wanted very much to learn why,
when the wind was so nearly ahead, the boat advanced instead of
drifting backwards or sideways. But this was altogether beyond the
power of either Master Lirriper or Joe Chambers to explain. They
said every one knew that when the sails were full a vessel went in
the direction in which her head pointed. "It's just the same way
with yourself, Master Geoffrey. You see, when you look one way
that's the way you go. When you turn your head and point another
way, of course you go off that way; and it's just the same thing
with the ship."