"
"Take navigation," Dave continued. "I stand just fairly well
in the theory of the thing. But I've no real knack with a sextant."
"Well, the sextant is only a hog-yoke," growled Dalzell.
"Yes; but I shiver every time I pick up the hog-yoke under the
watchful gaze of an instructor."
"Humph! Only yesterday I heard Lieutenant-Commander Richards
compliment you for your work in nav."
"Yes; but that was the mathematical end. I'm all right on the
paper end and the theoretical work, but it's the practical end
that I'm afraid of."
"You'll get plenty of the practical work as soon as you graduate
and get to sea," Dan urged.
"Yes; and very likely make a chump of myself, like Digby, of last
year's class. Did you hear what he did in nav.?"
"No," replied Dalzell, looking up with real interest this times
"If Digby made a fool of himself I'll be glad to hear about it,
for Dig was always just a little bit too chesty to suit me."
"Well, Dig wasn't a bit chesty the first day that he was ordered
to shoot the sun," Dave laughed. "Dig took the sextant, and made
a prize shot, or thought he did. After he had got the sun, plumb
at noon, he lowered the instrument and made his reading most carefully.
Then he went into the chart room, and got busy with his calculations.
The longer Dig worked the worse his head ached. He stared at
his figures, tore them up and tried again. Six or eight times
he worked the problem over, but always with the same result.
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