with the finest appetites in the world. `They had served out their apprenticeships,' the kindly old captain told them, `and were part of the nautical guild from that time on.' So it proved, for after these two bad days none of the party were sick again during the voyage.

Amy had a clamorous appetite for stories as well as for cold beef, and to appease this craving, Katy started a sort of ocean serial called `The History of Violet and Emma', which she meant to make last till they got to Liverpool, but which in reality lasted much longer. It might, with equal propriety, have been called `The Adventures of Two Little Girls Who Didn't Have Any Adventures', for nothing in particular happened to either Emma or Violet during the whole course of their long-drawn-out history. Amy, however, found them perfectly enchanting, and was never weary of hearing how they went to school and came home again, how they got into scrapes and got out of them, how they made good resolutions and broke them, about their Christmas presents and birthday treats, and what they said and how they felt. The first instalment of this unexciting romance was given that first afternoon on deck, and after that Amy claimed a new chapter daily, and it was a chief ingredient of her pleasure during that long sea voyage.

On the third morning Katy woke and dressed so early that she gained the deck before the sailors had finished their scrubbing and holystoning. She took refuge within the companion way, and sat down on the top step of the ladder, to wait till the deck was dry enough to venture upon it. There the Captain found her and drew near for a talk.

Captain Bryce was exactly the kind of sea captain that is found in story books, but not always in real life. He was stout, and grizzled, and brown, and kind. He had a bluff, weather-beaten face, lit up with a pair of shrewd blue eyes which twinkled when he was pleased, and his manner, though it was full of the habit of command, was quiet and pleasant. He was a martinet on board his ship. Not a sailor under him would have dared dispute his orders for a moment, but he was very popular with them, notwithstanding; they liked him as much as they feared him, for they knew him to be their best friend if it came to sickness or trouble with any of them.

Katy and he grew quite intimate during their long morning talk. The Captain liked girls. He had one of his own, about Katy's age, and was fond of talking about her. Lucy was his mainstay at home, he told Katy. Her mother had been `weakly' now this long time back, and Bess and Nanny were but children yet, so Lucy had to take command and keep things shipshape when he was away.

`She'll be on the look-out when the steamer comes in,' said the Captain. `There's a signal we've arranged which means "All's well", and when we get up the river a little way I always look to see if it's flying. It's a bit of a towel hung from a particular window, and when I see it I say to myself, "Thank God! another voyage safely done and no harm come of it." It's a sad kind of work for a man to go off for a twenty-four days' cruise leaving a sick wife on shore behind him. If it wasn't that I have Lucy to look after things, I should have thrown up my command long ago.

`Indeed, I am glad you have Lucy; she must be a great comfort to you,' said Katy, sympathetically, for the Captain's hearty voice trembled a little as he spoke. She made him tell her the colour of Lucy's hair and eyes, and exactly how tall she was, and what she had studied, and what sort of books she liked. She seemed such a very nice girl, and Katy thought she should like to know her.

The deck had dried fast in the fresh sea wind, and the Captain had just arranged Katy in her chair, and was wrapping the rug about her feet in a fatherly way, when Mrs Barrett, all smiles, appeared from below.

`Oh, 'ere you hare, miss. I couldn't think what 'ad come to you so early; and you're looking ever so well again, I'm pleased to see. 'Ere's a bundle just arrived, miss, by the parcels delivery.'

`What!' cried simple Katy. Then she laughed at her own foolishness, and took the `bundle', which was directed in Rose's unmistakable hand.