, and was a sort of link between the
officers and the crew.

We were now in the tropics. When there was a breeze the heat was
supportable enough, but when it fell calm we could scarcely bear our
clothes on, and went about in shirts and trousers, with bare feet, and
were glad to have the opportunity of getting into the shade. The pitch
boiled up out of the seams, and old Growles declared that he could cook
a beefsteak on the capstan-head, if he only had a beefsteak to cook.

The heat did not improve the temper of the men, and the ship became to
Mark and me a regular hell afloat. Matters were almost as bad with Tom
Trivett, but he could hold his own better than we could.

One day Mark came to me.

"I say, Dick," he exclaimed--a common fate had made us equal, and he had
long ago dropped the master--"I've been hearing that to-morrow we're to
cross the line. I wonder what sort of place we shall get into on
t'other side; as far as I can make out, it's a kind of bar, and those
who go over it for the first time have to pay toll to old Daddy Neptune,
who is coming aboard to collect his dues."

I was surprised that Mark had never heard of the line, and so I tried to
explain to him what it was. As to Neptune coming on board, I knew that
that was all nonsense, and so I told him.

During that evening and the next morning some of the men were busily
engaged in their berth, into which they allowed no one but themselves to
enter.

Soon after noon the captain, having taken his observations, gave notice
that we were about to cross the line. Mark and I had been sent aft,
when we heard a voice hail as if from under the bows.

"What ship is that?"

"The `Emu,'" answered the captain, who with the officers was standing on
the poop.

"Where did you come from, and for what port are you bound?" asked the
voice.

"From Liverpool, and we're bound to Rio and round Cape Horn," answered
the captain.

"All right, Captain Longfleet; with your leave my wife and I will pay
you a visit and bring some of our children and attendants, and if you
have any youngsters who have not crossed the line before, we shall have
a word to say to them."

"You're welcome, Father Neptune, for I suppose no one else would be
desirous of giving me a call out in these seas."

It was amusing to observe Mark's look of astonishment when immediately
afterwards a party of grotesque figures appeared clambering over the
bows. The first was an old fellow with