t
motion was sufficient to overpower her quite, till at last she made no
effort to rise, but lay there, disgusted with herself and all the world.
On the calmest and fairest days they would prevail on her to be helped
up to the deck, and there amid shawls and pillows she would sit,
enduring one degree less of misery than she did in the close cabin
below.

"It was just a judgment upon her," she said, "to let her see what a poor
conceited body she was. She, that had been making muckle o' herself, as
though the Lord couldna take care o' the bairns without her help."

It was not sufficient to be told hourly that the children were well and
happy, or to see it with her own eyes. This aggravated her trouble.
"Useless body that I am." And Janet did not wait for a sight of a
strange land, to begin to pine for the land she had left, and what with
sea-sickness and home-sickness together, she had very little hope that
she would ever see land of any kind again.

The lads and Marian enjoyed six weeks of perfect happiness. Graeme and
their father at first were in constant fear of their getting into
danger. It would only have provoked disobedience had all sorts of
climbing been forbidden, for the temptation to try to outdo each other
in their imitation of the sailors, was quite irresistible; and not a
rope in the rigging, nor a corner in the ship, but they were familiar
with before the first few days were over. "And, indeed, they were
wonderfully preserved, the foolish lads," their father acknowledged, and
grew content about them at last.

Before me lies the journal of the voyage, faithfully kept in a big book
given by Arthur for the purpose. A full and complete history of the six
weeks might be written from it, but I forbear. Norman or Harry, in
language obscurely nautical, notes daily the longitude or the latitude,
and the knots they make an hour. There are notices of whales, seen in
the distance, and of shoals of porpoises seen near at hand. There are
stories given which they have heard in the forecastle, and hints of
practical jokes and tricks played on one another. The history of each
sailor in the ship is given, from "handsome Frank, the first Yankee, and
the best-singer" the boys ever saw, to Father Abraham, the Dutchman,
"with short legs and shorter temper."

Graeme writes often, and daily bewails Janet's continued illness, and
rejoices over "wee Rosie's" improved health and temper. With her
account of the boys