"It is the eye, Terence. I can't say that I have been much at sea myself,
except on that voyage out and home; but I have an eye for ships, and can
see their good points at a glance. You can take it from me that she is a
wonderful vessel."

"She would look all the better if her sails were a bit cleaner, and not so
patched," Terence said, looking up.

"She might look better to the eye, lad, but no doubt the owners know what
they are doing, and consider that she goes better with sails that fit her
than she would with new ones."

Terence burst into a roar of laughter. O'Grady, as usual, looked at him in
mild surprise.

"What are you laughing at, you young spalpeen?"

"I am thinking, Captain O'Grady," the lad said, recovering himself, "that
it is a great pity you could not have obtained the situation of Devil's
Advocate. I have read that years ago someone was appointed to defend Old
Nick when the others were pitching into him, and to show that he was not
as black as he was painted, but was a respectable gentleman who had been
maligned by the world."

"No doubt there is a good deal to be said for him," O'Grady said,
seriously. "Give a dog a bad name, you know, and you may hang him; and I
have no doubt the Old One has been held responsible for lots of things he
never had as much as the tip of his finger in at all, at all."

Seeing that his captain was about to pursue the matter much further,