twoman, and although her
delicate and shapely arms were as mere pipe-stems to the great brawny
limbs of her companion, yet she had a deft, mysterious way of handling
the sculls that sent the cockleshell faster over the lagoon than before.

"Now, we go ashore here," said Kathy, turning the boat,--with a prompt
back-water of the left scull, and a vigorous pull of the right
one,--into a little cove just big enough to hold it.

The keel went with such a plump on the sand, that Nigel, who sat on a
forward thwart with his back landward, reversed the natural order of
things by putting his back on the bottom of the boat and his heels in
the air.

To this day it is an unsettled question whether this was done on purpose
by Kathy. Certain it is that _she_ did not tumble, but burst into a
hearty fit of laughter, while her large lustrous eyes half shut
themselves up and twinkled.

"Why, you don't even apologise, you dreadful creature!" exclaimed
Nigel, joining in the laugh, as he picked himself up.

"Why should I 'pologise?" asked the girl, in the somewhat broken English
acquired from her adopted family. "Why you not look out?"

"Right, Kathy, right; I'll keep a sharp lookout next time. Meanwhile I
will return good for evil by offering my hand to help you a--hallo!"

While he spoke the girl had sprung past him like a grasshopper, and
alighted on the sand like a butterfly.

A few minutes later and this little jesting fit had vanished, and they
were both engaged with pencil and book, eagerly--for both were
enthusiastic--sketching one of the most enchanting scenes that can well
be imagined. We will not attempt the impossible. Description could not
convey it. We can only refer the reader's imagination to the one old,
hackneyed but expressive, word--fairyland!

One peculiarly interesting point in the scene was, that on the opposite
side of the lagoon the captain could be seen holding forth to his
juvenile audience.

[Illustration: ART ON THE KEELING ISLANDS.--PAGE 36.]

When a pretty long time had elapsed in absolute silence, each sketcher
being totally oblivious of the other, Nigel looked up with a long sigh,
and said:--

"Well, you _have_ chosen a most exquisite scene for me. The more I
work at it, the more I find to admire. May I look now at what you have
done?"

"Oh yes, but I have done not much. I am slow," said the girl, as Nigel
rose and looked over her shoulder.

"Why!--what--how beautiful!--but--but--what do yo