uitable arrangement was made for him, for he was
accepted for training as a boy seaman. N.H.
_______________________________________________________________

BOB STRONG'S HOLIDAYS; OR, ADRIFT IN THE CHANNEL

BY JOHN CONROY HUTCHESON

CHAPTER ONE.

DOWN THE LINE.

"Bob!"

The noise of the train, however, drowned Nellie's voice; besides which
Master Bob was further prevented from hearing this appeal to him by
reason of his head and shoulders being at that precise instant projected
out of the window of the railway-carriage, in utter defiance of the
Company's bye-laws to the contrary and of his sister's solicitous
entreaties to the same effect--poor Nellie, fearing, in her feminine
anxiety, that the door would fly open unexpectedly, from the pressure of
Bob's person, and precipitate her brother as suddenly out on the line.

"Bob!" she therefore repeated on finding her first summons disregarded,
speaking in a louder key and giving a tug to his jacket the better to
attract his attention--"I say, Bob!"

"Hullo! What's the row?" shouted back the delinquent, hearing her at
last, and wriggling himself in from the window like a snail withdrawing
itself into its shell, turning round the while his face, slightly
flushed with the exertion, to hers--"Anything wrong, eh?"

Little Miss Nellie had not expected her timid and tentative
conversational advances to be taken up in this downright fashion.
Really she was only anxious for some one to sympathise with her and talk
about the various objects of interest which came across her notice as
they went along; so, Bob's abrupt address, coupled with his gruff tone
of voice, fell on her enthusiasm like a wet blanket!

"Nothing's the matter," she replied timidly. "I only wanted to say how
nice it is travelling like this."

"You don't mean to say you only called me in to tell me that?" said Bob,
almost angrily. "I do think girls are the greatest geese in the world!"

With this dogmatic assertion, Master Bob shoved himself head and
shoulders out of the window again, utterly ignoring poor Nellie's
existence, much to her chagrin and dismay.

He was very rude, it must be confessed; but, some allowance should be
made for him, all things considered.

In the first place, he was a boy just fresh from the rougher
associations of school life; and, secondly, his inquiring mind was
intently occupied in endeavouring to solve a series of mathematical
problems that set all Euclid's law