ave a children's party, and I may
come. Won't the children be excited!"

"Torps, what are you going to do with them," asked the First
Lieutenant, "besides breaking their necks by pushing them down the
windsails?" He spoke without bitterness, but as a man who had in his
youth embraced cynicism as a refuge and found the pose easier to retain
than to discard.

The Torpedo Lieutenant regarded him severely. "It's no good adopting
this tone of lofty detachment, Number One. You're going to do most of
the entertaining, besides keeping my grey hairs company."

The First Lieutenant laughed, a sad, hard laugh without any laughter in
it. "I don't amuse children, I'm afraid. In fact, I frighten them.
They don't like my face. No, no----"

"Mr. Hornby," interposed the Skipper's Missus reproachfully, "that
isn't quite true, is it? You know Jane prays for you nightly, and
Corney wouldn't for worlds sleep without that wooden semaphore you made
him----"

"I think Hornby would make an admirable Father Neptune," said the
Captain, considering him mischievously, "with a tow wig and beard----"

"And my green bath kimono," supplemented the A.P. "I bought it at
Nagasaki, in the bazaar. It's got green dragons all over it----" He
met the First Lieutenant's eye and lapsed into silence again.

"Yes! Yes! And oyster-shells sewn all over it, and seaweed
trailing . . ." The Skipper's Missus clapped her hands. "And
distribute presents after tea. Oh, Mr. Hornby, _wouldn't_ that be
lovely!"

The First Lieutenant took no further part in the discussion. But late
that night he was observed to select a volume of the "Encyclopaedia
Britannica" (L-N) from the wardroom library, and retire with it to his
cabin. His classical education had been scanty, and left him in some
doubt as to what might be expected of the son of Saturn and Rhea at a
children's party.

2

"I doubt if any of 'em'll face it," said the First Lieutenant
hopefully, when The Day arrived. "There's a nasty lop on, and the
glass is tumbling down as if the bottom had dropped out. It's going to
blow a hurricane before midnight. Anyhow, they'll all be sick coming
off."

The Torpedo Lieutenant was descending the ladder to the picket-boat.
"Bunje and I are going in to look after them. It's too late to put it
off now." He glanced at the threatening horizon. "They'll be all snug
once we get them on board, and this'll all blow over before tea-time."

Off went th