The Storm, and its Results.  
Although the Red Eric was thrown on her beam-ends, or nearly so, by the excessive violence of the squall, the preparations to meet it had been so well made that she righted again almost immediately, and now flew before the wind under bare poles with a velocity that was absolutely terrific.
 
Ailie had been nearly thrown out of her berth when the ship lay over, and now when she listened to the water hissing and gurgling past the little port that lighted her cabin, and felt the staggering of the vessel, as burst after burst of the hurricane almost tore the masts out of her, she lay trembling with anxiety and debating with herself whether or not she ought to rise and go on deck.
 
Captain Dunning well knew that his child would be naturally filled with fear, for this was the first severe squall she had ever experienced, so, as he could not quit the deck himself, he called Glynn Proctor to him and sent him down with a message.
 
“Well, Ailie,” said Glynn, cheerfully, as he opened the door and peeped in; “how d’ye get on, dear? The captain has sent me to say that the worst o’ this blast is over, and you’ve nothing to fear.”
 
“I am glad to hear that, Glynn,” replied the child, holding out her hand, while a smile lighted up her face and smoothed out the lines of anxiety from her brow. “Come and sit by me, Glynn, and tell me what like it is. I wish so much that I had been on deck. Was it grand, Glynn?”
 
“It was uncommonly grand; it was even terrible—but I cannot sit with you more than a minute, else my shipmates will say that I’m skulking.”
 
“Skulking, Glynn! What is that?”
 
“Why, it’s—it’s shirking work, you know,” said Glynn, somewhat puzzled.
 
Ailie laughed. “But you forget that I don’t know what ‘shirking’ means. You must explain that too.”
 
“How terribly green you are, Ailie.”
 
“No! am I?” exclaimed the child in some surprise. “What can have done it? I’m not sick.”
 
Glynn laughed outright at this, and then proceeded to explain the meaning of the slang phraseology he had used. “Green, you must know, means ignorant,” he began.
 
“How funny! I wonder why.”
 
“Well, I don’t know exactly. Perhaps it’s because when a fellow’s asked to answer questions he don’t understand, he’s apt to turn either blue with rage or yellow with fear—or both; and that, you know, would make him green. I’ve heard it said that it implies a comparison of men to plants—very young ones, you know, that are just up, just born, as it were, and have not had much experience of life, are green of course—but I like my own definition best.”
 
It may perhaps be scarcely necessary to remark that our hero was by no means singular in this little preference of his own definition to that of any one else!
 
“Well, and what does skulking mean, and shirking work?” persisted Ailie.
 
“It means hiding so as to escape duty, my little catechist; but—”
 
“Hallo! Glynn, Glynn Proctor,” roared the first mate from the deck—“where’s that fellow? Skulking, I’ll be bound. Lay aloft there and shake out the foretopsail. Look alive.”
 
“Ay, ay, sir,” was the ready response as the men sprang to obey.
 
“There, you have it now, Ailie, explained and illustrated,” cried Glynn, starting up. “Here I am, at this minute in a snug, dry berth chatting to you, and in half a minute more I’ll be out on the end o’ the foreyard holding on for bare life, with the wind fit to tear off my jacket and blow my ducks into ribbons, and the rain and spray dashing all over me fit to blot me out altogether. There’s a pretty little idea to turn over in your mind, Ailie, while I’m away.”
 
Glynn closed the door at the last word, and, as he had prophesied, was, within half a minute, in the unenviable position above referred to.
 
The force of the squall was already broken, and the men were busy setting close-reefed topsails, but the rain that followed the squall bid fair to “blot them out,” as Glynn said, altogether. It came down, not in drops, but in masses, which were caught up by the fierce gale and mingled with the spray, and hurled about and on with such violent confusion, that it seemed as though the whole creation were converted............