he answer; "you can get
ready for sea."

I own that I had had my cabins burnished up, and had procured a new
dinner and tea service, while I directed the mates to get the ship in as
trim order as possible. As soon as the cargo was discharged, the
painters had been busy in all directions about her; while Dick, who
suspected the truth, got the decks holy-stoned and scrubbed till they
looked almost as white as snow.

All things were ready by the day I had been directed to sail, and early
in the forenoon I went on shore to escort my passengers on board. They
too were in very different guise to that when they came on board after
their shipwreck. Sophie looked more sweet and lovely than ever, in the
light costume which the heat of the climate required, while Emilie was
cheerful and full of conversation, doing her utmost to keep up her
brother's spirits. I was sorry to see less improvement in him than I
had hoped. He looked pale and ill, though he declared that he had
recovered from the injuries he had received when dashed against the
rocks.

The weather was fine, and I did not expect to be long in running across
to Saint Lucia, which is one of the nearest islands in the Caribbean Sea
to Barbadoes. The wind, however, headed us soon after we got clear of
the land, and a few hours afterwards it fell a dead calm, and we lay
immovable on the glass-like sea. I cannot say that for my own sake I
specially regretted this, though, knowing the wishes of my friends, I
felt anxious to make the shortest possible passage.

I had an awning rigged, so that the ladies could spend the day on deck,
where they sat busy with their needles; for, unlike the Creoles
generally, they were evidently good housewives.

"As you may suppose, Captain Laurel, having lost all our things, we have
plenty of work before us to make fresh ones," observed Emilie, laughing.
"Though as we intended to get rigged out, as you would call it, in
Paris, fortunately our loss was not so severe as it would have been on
our homeward voyage. Ah, but I am wrong to talk so lightly, when I
speak of that terrible event. Still, you understand, that we fancy we
can make our own things better than anybody else can make them for us,
and therefore you must not expect to find us sitting, like other young
ladies, with our hands before us."

Sophie, however, was not so diligent as her cousin, and did not object
to come to the side of the ship, and watch the strange creatures