st they often directed their eyes at Grace and me. The
setting sun shone upon the skylight, and gleamed in ruby prisms and
crystals in the glass about the table. It was a warm and cheerful
picture; the forward windows in the saloon framed a part of the ship--a
glimpse of curved white canvas, a fragment of the galley and the
long-coat, the steps leading to the forecastle, coils of gear swinging
upon pins; the soft blue afternoon sky of the fine weather that had
come at last shone betwixt the squares of the rattlines and floated in
a tender liquid atmosphere under the arch of the sails; you could see a
number of the steerage passengers pacing the main-deck, smoking and
arguing; a gentle _shaling_ noise of waters broken by the passage of
the vessel seethed in the ear like a light, passing attack of deafness
in the intervals of silence at the table.

The chief officer, the Scotch-faced man I have before written of, sat
at the foot of the table, slowly and soberly eating.

"It would be strange, sir," said I, addressing him, "if we do not
hereabout speedily fall in with something homeward bound."

"I would, sir," he answered, with a broad Scotch accent.

"Yet not so strange, Mr. M'Cosh," said a passenger, sitting opposite to
me, "if you come to consider how wide the sea is here."

"Well, perhaps not so strange either," said Mr. M'Cosh, in his sawdusty
voice, with his mouth full.

"Should you pass a steamer at night," said I, "would you stop and hail
her?"

He reflected, and then said, he "thocht not."

"Then our opportunities for getting home must be limited to daylight?"
said I.

This seemed too obvious to him, I suppose, to need a response.

"Are you in a very great hurry, Mr. Barclay, to get home?" exclaimed a
passenger, with a slight cast in his eye that gave a turn of humour to
his face.

"Why, yes," I answered, with a glance at Grace, who was eating quietly
at my side, seldom looking up, though she was as much stared at, even
after all these hours, as decent manners would permit. "You will
please remember that we are without luggage."

"Eh, but that is to be managed, I think. There are many of us here of
both sexes," continued the gentleman with the cast in his eye, sending
a squint along the row of people on either side of the table. "You
should see New Zealand, sir. The country abounds with fine and noble
prospects, and I do not think," he added, with a smile, "that you will
find occasion to compl