hear His voice speaking the sweet words and see His kind eyes looking
directly at you.

"It is my ardent wish, my most earnest, constant prayer, that my beloved
wife may speedily learn to know, love, and trust in Him who is the Way,
the Truth, and the Life!"

"You are so good, Ned! I wish I were worthy of such a husband," she
murmured, half sighing as she spoke.

"Quite a mistake, Zoe," he replied, with unaffected humility; "to hear
you talk so makes me feel like a hypocrite. I haves no righteousness of
my own to plead, but, thanks be unto God, I may rejoice in the imputed
righteousness of Christ! And that may be yours, too, love, for the
asking.

"'Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it
shall be opened unto you.'

"They are the Master's own words; and He adds: 'For every one that
asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh
it shall be opened.'"

Meanwhile the contemplated trip of the young men was under discussion in
the parlor. "Dear me!" said Betty, who had just heard of it, "how much
fun men and boys do have! Don't you wish you were one of them, Lulu?"

"No, I don't," returned Lulu, promptly. "I'd like to be allowed to do
some of the things they do that we mustn't, but I don't want to be a
boy."

"That is right," said her father; "there are few things so unpleasant to
me as a masculine woman, who wishes herself a man and tries to ape the
stronger, coarser sex in dress and manners. I hope my girls will always
be content, and more than content, to be what God has made them."

"If you meant to hit me that time, captain," remarked Betty, in a lively
tone, "let me tell you it was a miserable failure, for I don't wish I
was a man, and never did. Coarse creatures, as you say--present company
always excepted--who would want to be one of them."

"I'd never have anything to do with one of them if I were in your place,
Bet," laughed her brother.

"Perhaps I shouldn't, only that they seem a sort of necessary evil," she
retorted. "But why don't you invite some of us ladies to go along?"

"Because you are _not_ necessary evils," returned her brother, with a
twinkle of fun in his eye.

"You should, one and all, have an invitation if we could make you
comfortable," said Harold, gallantly: "but the vessel has absolutely no
accommodations for ladies."

"Ah, then, you are excusable," returned Betty.

The young men left the next morning, after an early brea