reached the
gunroom. Every one had plenty to say about her and her father. He did
not express his own opinion; had he admired her less he might have done
so. Alick Murray returned on board the corvette with the image of
Stella impressed on his heart. Like a wise man he tried to banish it,
but go it would not. Again and again that sweet countenance rose up
before him, and he longed for an opportunity of meeting her again--of
hearing her voice, of ascertaining her opinions, of learning her
history.

The ships visited Saint Vincent, Saint Lucia, Dominica, and other
islands in succession, the one vying with the other in beauty, though
the palm was given to the few first seen. As to the blacks, they all
appeared sufficiently quiet, so that only two or three days were spent
at each island.

The midshipmen had not forgotten their object in purchasing Spider, and
every day they had him into their berth to give him instructions in
polite knowledge, as they took care to tell Mr Scrofton. With all the
pains they took, however, he made no perceptible progress, though he had
no objection to eat the nuts and fruits offered him, provided they were
ripe and sweet, or to sit with a stick in his paws, and shoulder it at
the word of command. Still he infinitely preferred frolicking about on
deck, or swinging by his tail to a horizontal spar, slung for his
accommodation. He appeared altogether perfectly reconciled to his lot,
except when the ship was in harbour, when he would go aloft and sit on
the main-truck, gazing towards the green trees, while he chattered away,
evidently, as Gerald said, meditating on the pleasures of his youth,
spent amid his native forests.

At last, one day, the midshipmen conducted Spider in due form, dressed
in a coat and trousers, with a tarpaulin hat they had manufactured for
him, to the boatswain's cabin.

"We have done our best, Mr Scrofton, to bring up this monkey in the way
he should go, in order to become a civilised being," said Tom, with
perfect gravity. "Notwithstanding all our pains he doesn't know A from
Z; and though we have tried to make him understand how to light the
lamp, he can no more use the matches than at first, and puts them in his
mouth, or throws them away if given to him; and when it has been lighted
he pokes his paws into the flame to see what the curious red thing is
just sprung out of the wick."

"I don't expect that you ever will teach him, young gentlemen," answere