An amusing story is told by a sea-captain in relation to the ignorance of his steward, whom he had directed to wind the chronometer in the cabin every morning regularly during his contemplated absence from the ship.

Now a chronometer is nothing but a finely regulated timepiece used by navigators. On its face is a small circle having a hand, and at two points on this circle are the words "Up" and "Wind." When the instrument is wound the little arrow-band points to "Up," and after the chronometer has run twenty-four hours the arrow stands against "Wind," meaning that it is time for it to be wound.

When the Captain returned to his ship, the steward reported to him that he had obeyed orders, and wound the chronometer faithfully every day, and then added that he, personally, did not think much of its ability to foretell weather.

"What do you mean?" asked the puzzled Captain. "What has a chronometer got to do with the weather?"

"Why," replied the manipulator of sailors' hash and plum-duff, "every morning the arrow would say that we were going to have wind, and half the time it was a flat calm."