Unsolicited, he was my laundress and tailor; a most expert one, too; and when at meal-times my turn came round to look out at the mast-head, or stand at the wheel, he catered for me among the "kids" in the forecastle with unwearied assiduity.

Many's the good lump of "duff" for which I was indebted to my good Viking's good care of me.

And like Sesostris I was served by a monarch.

Yet in some degree the obligation was mutual.

For be it known that, in sea-parlance, we were _chummies._ Now this _chummying_ among sailors is like the brotherhood subsisting between a brace of collegians (chums) rooming together.