search,
however, was less successful. Not a corner big enough for a cat to
sleep in was to be found, all the goods having been flung hastily into
the hold, so that it was a chaos of box corners, stove legs, edges of
kegs and casks, which presented a surface that put to flight all hope of
horizontal repose; so I was obliged to return to the cabin, where I
found the unhappy inmates winking and blinking at each other like owls
in the sunshine.

"You had better make use of one of these berths, my young friend," said
Mr Gowley, with a bland smile, as I entered; "you seem very much
overcome with sleep, and _we_ have resolved to sit up all night."

"Do get in," urged Mrs Gowley, who was a sweet, gentle creature, and
seemed much too delicate and fragile to stand the rough life that was
likely to be the lot of the wife of a missionary to the Red men of the
Far North; "I do not intend to lie down to-night; and besides, it will
soon be morning." A sweet but very sleepy smile flitted across her face
as she spoke.

Of course, I protested against this with great vehemence, assuring them
that I could not think of anything so ungallant, and that I meant to sit
it out manfully with the rest. Mr Rob, who was a comical little
Welshman, of about thirty years of age, with a sharp, snub nose, which
was decorated with spectacles, sat huddled up in a corner, immersed in
sleepiness to such an extent that he would not have smiled for worlds,
and spent the weary hours in vain efforts to keep his head on his
shoulders--an object, apparently, of some difficulty, seeing that it
swayed backwards and forwards and round about like that of a Chinese
mandarin! For a few minutes I sat gazing steadfastly at the revolving
object before me, when my own head became similarly affected, and fell
suddenly back against the bulk-head with a tremendous crash, wakening
them all up, and causing Mr Rob to stare at me with an expression of
vacant gravity, mingled with surprise, which slowly and gradually faded
away again as sleep reasserted its irresistible power.

Flesh and blood could not stand this. I would have lain down on the
table, but poor Mrs Gowley's head already covered the greater part of
that; or on the floor, but, alas! it was too small. At last I began to
reason thus with myself: "Here are two capital beds, with nobody in
them; it is the height of folly to permit them to remain empty; but
then, what a selfish-looking thing to leave Mrs Gowley s