we should all have to die, and Ensign
Holt would be the only person left on board the `Ranger.'"

Harry Shafto soon afterwards coming on deck, the two midshipmen appealed
to him for his opinion. Harry laughed heartily.

"I think, however, that those soldier-officers might as well have let
the poor birds alone," he observed. "It is a cruel thing to shoot them,
but I do not think any further harm will come of it."

Still, neither Peter nor Willy were quite satisfied. "I'll ask Mrs
Rumbelow what she thinks about it," said Willy. "She will soon get the
opinion of the seamen, and I should not quite like to ask them myself."

As soon as their watch was over, the two midshipmen went below, where
they found Mrs Rumbelow seated on a chest, busily employed in darning
her husband's stockings, or in some other feminine occupation, as was
her wont: Mrs Rumbelow's fingers were never idle.

"Glad to see you, young gentlemen," she said, looking up from her work.
"Well, Mr Dicey, you don't look like the same person you were before we
reached the Cape; by the time you get home again they won't know you."

"If all goes well with us, perhaps not," said Willy; "but Ensign Holt
has gone and killed an albatross, and perhaps, as you know, that is a
very dreadful thing to do. They say that evil is sure, in consequence,
to come to the ship."

Mrs Rumbelow looked at the faces of her two young visitors. "Do you
think seriously that God rules the world in that fashion?" she asked, in
a somewhat scornful tone. "Because a foolish young gentleman happens to
kill a bird, will He who counts the hairs of our heads allow a number of
His creatures, who have nothing to do with the matter, to suffer in
consequence. Do not let such nonsense enter your heads, my dears."

"We wanted you, Mrs Rumbelow, to inquire of the seamen what they think
about the matter," said Willy.

"I will do no such thing, and that's my answer," replied the sergeant's
wife; "harm may come to the ship, but it won't be because of that, or
anything of the sort."

Just then Sergeant Rumbelow himself came up: in appearance he was very
unlike his wife. Whereas she was tall and thin, he was comparatively
short and broad; indeed, though of the regulation height, his width made
him appear shorter than he really was; while his countenance, though
burnt and tanned by southern suns and exposure to all sorts of weather,
was fat and rubicund. He held his sides and laughed so hea