the dinner-bell rang,
and I was glad to hear it, for I had the appetite of a horse. There was
a first-rate dinner, ever so many different kinds of dishes, all up and
down the table, which had ridges running lengthwise, under the
table-cloth, to keep the plates from sliding off, if a storm should come
up. Before we were done with dinner the shelves above the table began to
swing a good deal,--or rather the vessel rolled and the shelves kept
their places,--so I knew we must be pretty well out to sea, but I had
not expected it would be so rough, for the day had been fine and clear.
When we left the table, it was about as much as we could do to keep our
feet, and in less than a quarter of an hour I began to feel dreadfully.
I stuck it out as long as I could, and then I went to bed. The old ship
rolled, and she pitched, and she heaved, and she butted, right and left,
against the waves, and made herself just as uncomfortable for human
beings as she could, but, for all that, I went to sleep after a while.

I don't know how long I slept, but when I woke up, there was Rectus,
sitting on a little bench by the state-room wall, with his feet braced
against the berth. He was hard at work sucking a lemon. I turned over
and looked down at him. He didn't look a bit sick. I hated to see him
eating lemons.

"Don't you feel badly, Rectus?" said I.

"Oh no!" said he; "I'm all right. You ought to suck a lemon. Have one?"

I declined his offer. The idea of eating or drinking anything was
intensely disagreeable to me. I wished that Rectus would put down that
lemon. He did throw it away after a while, but he immediately began to
cut another one.

[Illustration: RECTUS AND THE LEMONS.]

"Rectus," said I, "you'll make yourself sick. You'd better go to bed."

"It's just the thing to stop me from being sick," said he, and at that
minute the vessel gave her stern a great toss over sideways, which sent
Rectus off his seat, head foremost into the wash-stand. I was glad to
see it. I would have been glad of almost anything that stopped that
lemon business.

But it didn't stop it; and he only picked himself up, and sat down
again, his lemon at his mouth.

"Rectus!" I cried, leaning out of my berth. "Put down that lemon and go
to bed!"

He put down the lemon without a word, and went to bed. I turned over
with a sense of relief. Rectus was subordinate!

CHAPTER III.

RECTUS OPENS HIS EYES.

I was all right the next day, and we st