morning when we launched forth and rowed over
the lagoon towards the outlet in the reef, and passed between the two
green islets that guard the entrance. We experienced some difficulty and
no little danger in passing the surf of the breaker, and shipped a good
deal of water in the attempt; but, once past the billow, we found
ourselves floating placidly on the long oily swell that rose and fell
slowly as it rolled over the wide ocean.

Penguin Island lay on the other side of our own island, at about a mile
beyond the outer reef, and we calculated that it must be at least twenty
miles distant by the way we should have to go. We might, indeed, have
shortened the way by coasting round our island inside of the lagoon, and
going out at the passage in the reef nearly opposite to Penguin Island,
but we preferred to go by the open sea; first, because it was more
adventurous; and, secondly, because we should have the pleasure of again
feeling the motion of the deep, which we all loved very much, not being
liable to sea sickness.

"I wish we had a breeze," said Jack.

"So do I," cried Peterkin, resting on his oar and wiping his heated brow;
"pulling is hard work. Oh dear, if we could only catch a hundred or two
of these gulls, tie them to the boat with long strings, and make them fly
as we want them, how capital it would be!"

"Or bore a hole through a shark's tail, and reeve a rope through it, eh?"
remarked Jack. "But, I say, it seems that my wish is going to be
granted, for here comes a breeze. Ship your oar, Peterkin. Up with the
mast, Ralph; I'll see to the sail. Mind your helm; look out for
squalls!"

This last speech was caused by the sudden appearance of a dark blue line
on the horizon, which, in an incredibly short space of time, swept down
on us, lashing up the sea in white foam as it went. We presented the
stern of the boat to its first violence, and, in a few seconds, it
moderated into a steady breeze, to which we spread our sail and flew
merrily over the waves. Although the breeze died away soon afterwards,
it had been so stiff while it lasted, that we were carried over the
greater part of our way before it fell calm again; so that, when the
flapping of the sail against the mast told us that it was time to resume
the oars, we were not much more than a mile from Penguin Island.

"There go the soldiers!" cried Peterkin as we came in sight of it; "how
spruce their white trousers look, this morning! I wond