ight hand lightly grasping a spoke at arm's-length, and his
eye on the weather leach of the main-skysail, as he softly hummed to
himself the air of a song she had sung a night or two before; and the
young lady at once arrived at the conclusion that this afforded an
excellent opportunity for her to take her first lesson. So she walked
aft, and opened the negotiations by saying:

"Good evening, Ned." (Everybody on board, fore and aft, called the lad
Ned; so she naturally did the same.)

"Good evening, Miss Stanhope," replied Ned, straightening himself up and
doffing his cap with a sweep which would not have disgraced a--a--well,
let us say, a Frenchman; "what splendid weather we are having! Here is
another glorious evening, with every prospect of the breeze lasting, and
perhaps freshening a bit when the sun goes down. If it only holds for
forty-eight hours longer I hope it will run us fairly into the trades."

"I hope it will, I am sure," said Miss Stanhope, "if `running fairly
into the trades' is going to do us any good. I presume you are
referring to the trade _winds_, about which Captain Blyth has been
talking during dinner."

"Precisely," acknowledged Ned.

"Could you not _tie_ that wheel, and sit down comfortably, instead of
standing there holding it as you are doing?" inquired Sibylla, by way of
leading up gradually to the proposal she intended to make.

Ned laughed. "It _looks_ as though one might as well do so," he said.
"But you've no idea how capricious a ship is. I've not moved the wheel
for the last ten minutes, and look how straight our wake is. Yet, if I
were to lash this wheel exactly as it is now, it would not be half a
minute before the ship would be shooting up into the wind."

"How very curious!" remarked Sibylla. "And yet, so long as you hold the
wheel the ship goes perfectly straight. How do you account for that?"

"I watch her," answered Ned, "and the moment I detect a disposition to
deviate from the right course I check her with a movement of the wheel.
The slightest touch is sufficient in such fine weather as we are having
at present."

"I see," remarked the young lady. "The ship is as obedient to her guide
as a well-trained child. And it seems easy enough to guide her. I
believe I could do it myself."

"Certainly you could. Would you like to try?" said Ned, who at length
fancied he could see the drift of his fair interlocutor's remarks.

"I should very much," answered Mis