ou were, and very loudly. I don't wonder at your not liking that
man: I don't. Perhaps he'll improve though. We will not judge him yet.
So you're coming all the way with us?"

"Yes."

"I'm glad of it. Be a change for you, and for us too. This is rather
different to what we've been having, eh?"

"Why, it's lovely!" cried Mark. "I didn't think the weather could be so
beautiful at sea."

"Nor so stormy, eh?"

"I didn't notice much of the storm," said Mark. "I was too ill."

"Ah! it is bad that first attack of `waves in motion,' as I call it.
But that's all past, and we shall have fine weather, I daresay, all the
rest of the voyage. One never gets much worse weather than we have near
home."

"Was much damage done," asked Mark, "in the storm?"

"Nothing serious. We were just starting after all our faulty rigging
had been replaced. If we had been coming home after a voyage it might
have been different. One or two sails were blown to shreds, but the old
ship behaved nobly."

"I wish I had not been so ill," said Mark thoughtfully.

"So do I, my lad; but why do you speak so?"

"Because I should have liked to be on deck."

"Ah! well, you need not regret your sickness, for you would not have
been on deck. It was as much as we could do to hold our own and not get
washed overboard. That's worth looking at."

He pointed, as he spoke, to a blue line of hills away to the east bathed
in the brilliant sunshine, while the water between them and the shore
seemed to be as blue, but of another shade.

"Spain!" said Mark. "How lovely!"

"Portugal, my lad. Yes, it's pretty enough, but I've often seen bits of
the Welsh coast look far more lovely. Don't you run away with the idea
that you are going to see more beautiful countries than your own."

"Oh, but, Mr Morgan, Spain, and Italy, and Egypt, and Ceylon, and
Singapore, they are all more beautiful than England."

"They're different, my lad," said Morgan, laughing, "and they look new
to you and fresh; but when the weather's fine, take my word for it
there's no place like home."

"Oh, but I thought--"

"You were going to see Arabian Night's wonders, eh? Well, you will not,
my lad. Of course there are parts of foreign countries that are
glorious. I thought Sydney harbour a paradise when I first saw it; but
then I had been four months at sea, and the weather horrible. Hallo!
here's an old friend. He always disappears when the weather's bad, and
buries