“I can spare it perfectly,” I whispered.  “I’ve had plenty to eat quite lately.”

I shall never forget how he clutched it then.  I could hear his teeth clash with the eagerness of his eating.  It almost frightened me in the darkness.

“Eh! man, that was good!” he gasped.  “Are ye sure indeed and in truth ye could spare it all?  I didn’t think they made such bannocks out of Scotland.  But we’ve much to learn in all matters, doubtless.  Thank ye a thousand times.”

“The old Irishwoman gave it me!” I said with some malice.  “She made me put it in my pocket, though she had given me a good meal before, for which she would take nothing.”

“It was leeberal of her,” said Alister Auchterlay.  “Verra leeberal; but there are good Christians to be met with, amongst all sorts, there’s not a doot aboot it.”

I should probably have pursued my defence of Biddy against this grudging—­not to say insulting—­tribute to her charity, if I had not begun to feel too tired to talk, and very much teased by the heaving of the vessel.

“I wish the ship would be quiet till we start,” I said.  “We’re not at sea yet.”

In reply to this Alister at some length, and with as much emphasis as whispering permitted, explained to me that a ship could not, in the nature of things, keep still, except in certain circumstances, such as being in dry dock for repairs or lying at anchor in absolutely still water.

“Good gracious!” I interrupted.  “Of course I know all that.  You don’t suppose I expect it not to move?”

“I understood ye to say that ye wushed it,” he replied with dignity, if not offence.

“I don’t know what I wish!” I moaned.

My companion’s reply to this was to feel about for me and then to begin scrambling over me; then he said—­“Move on, laddie, to your right, and ye’ll find space to lie on the flat of your back, close by the ship’s side.  I’m feared you’re barely fit for the job ye’ve undertaken, but ye’ll be easier if ye lie down, and get some sleep.”

I moved as he told me, and the relief of lying flat was great—­so great that I began to pull myself together again, and made ready in my mind to thank my unseen companion for the generosity with which he had evidently given me the place he had picked for himself.  But whilst I was thinking about it I fell fast asleep.

When I woke, for the first minute I thought I was at home, and I could not conceive what Martha could be doing, that there should be, as far as one could hear, chimney-sweeping, cinder-riddling, furniture-moving, clock-winding, and Spring-cleaning, of the most awful nature, all going on at once, and in a storm of yelling and scolding, which was no part of our domestic ways.  But in another minute I knew where I was, and by the light coming through a little round porthole above me, I could see my companion.