on the English Channel, the coast of France, fifty miles
distant, from Calais to Dieppe, was once seen for about three hours. In
1854 a remarkable exhibition of the mirage was witnessed in the Baltic
Sea from the deck of a ship of the British navy. The whole English
fleet, consisting of nineteen sail, distant thirty miles from the point
of observation, were seen up in the air, upside down, as if they had
been hung up there by their keels.

"The Fata Morgana is a sort of mirage seen in the Strait of Messina. A
person standing on the shore sees the images of men, houses, ships, and
other objects, sometimes in the air, sometimes in the water, the
originals frequently magnified, passing like a panorama before the
beholder. The vapory masses above the strait may cause the pictures to
be surrounded by a colored line. When the peasants see it, they shout
'Morgana! Morgana!'"

"What does that word mean?" inquired Miss Blanche.

"The French from which it is derived is '_Morgaine la Fee_,' from a
sister of King Arthur of the Round Table, who had the reputation of
being a fairy, which is _fata_ in Italian."

"But what is that round table?" asked Mrs. Blossom very innocently.

"You must excuse me, my dear woman," replied the commander, looking at
his watch. "The Suez Canal is the subject before us, and I am talking
all the morning about other things."

"But it is collateral information, called out by the mirage; and the
illustrations you mentioned are quite new to me, for one," added Dr.
Hawkes.

"I like this kind of a conference, where the side matters are all
explained," said Mrs. Belgrave. "But it is a pity the boys are not here,
for they are not getting any of the cream of this conference so early in
the morning."

This was enough for the commander, coming from her; and he immediately
hastened to the stern of the ship, where he hailed the Maud, and ordered
her to come alongside. The four sailors who had attended the party in
the excursion to Cairo and up the Nile were directed to go on board of
the tender, and take the places of the "Big Four." The Guardian-Mother
had to go into a "siding" to permit a steamer to pass her at this point,
and the transfer was easily made.

However it may have been with the others, Louis Belgrave was glad to get
back to the ship, where he could sit by the side of Miss Blanche, and
answer the many questions she was continually asking; for she had an
inquiring mind. As she often remarked,