with its tripod masts. Others later made, and always more and
more stumpy and square, need a strong pressure of utilitarian conviction
to restrain us from pronouncing that they are downright ugly. But we
shall soon become reconciled, and then enamoured, of forms that are
associated with proved utility, and the grand three-decker of our youth
will look as clumsy then as the ships of Queen Elizabeth do now, which
seem to have carried, each of them, a lot of toy guns, and a country
mansion on its deck.

The church service on board old 'Victory' was most interesting to take
part in when Sunday came round, and next day her captain came to visit us
in his well-manned gig, which, indeed, was longer than our boat, and he
said that the Rob Roy "fulfilled a dream of his youth." This from a
"swell of the ocean" was a high compliment to our little yawl.

A boat full of boys, from the Portsmouth Ragged School, sang hymns on the
water in the lovely evening.

Among the other remarkable visitors to the yawl was a pleasant young
lady, who sat in a very pretty boat, rowed by a trusty man. She had
hovered round and round the Rob Roy with a cautious propriety, which,
however, could not conceal a certain wistful gaze as the narrowing spiral
of her course brought her nearer at each turn. My little dingey was the
attraction, and the lady confessed boldly that she "would _so_ like to
have a boat like that to row in." Next she consented to see dinner
cooked on the Rob Roy, and--just because she was a lady--she complied
with the request not to fly away when I began to eat. Finally, as
curiosity increases by gratifying it, the good-humoured girl (with the
full consent of the trusty guardian) accepted one mouthful of the newly
cooked rations, stewed steak, on Rob Roy's fork, and then suddenly it had
become "very late, and time to join papa."

The variety of life during a fortnight here, yet all afloat, was
abounding. One day sailing in company with other small boats up the
winding Medina, or tacking about, close-reefed, in rough water; the next
day cruising in some splendid schooner away and away towards the Needles.
Every one was kind and hospitable, and often dipping their ensigns to the
yawl. Surely we have named her cruise wrongly as "the voyage alone;"
and, indeed, I could scarcely get time in my cabin for a glance at a
paper, to see the news and doings of the land folk, bricked up ashore:
their wars and congresses and the general