m and his youngsters," grumbled Walters as we went forward. "He
has no business to speak like that before the men."

"Oh, what does it matter?" I said. "Look there, at that thin gentleman
and the young lady who came on board yesterday evening. He must be ill.
Oh! mind," I cried, and I sprang forward just in time to catch the
gentleman's arm, for as he came out of the cabin entrance, looking very
pale, and leaning upon the arm of the lady, he caught his foot in a rope
being drawn along the deck, and in spite of the lady clinging to him he
would have fallen if I had not run up.

"Don't!" he cried angrily, turning upon me. "Why do you leave your
ropes about like that?"

"John, dear!"

Only those two words, spoken in a gentle reproachful tone, and the young
lady turned to me and smiled.

"Thank you," she said; "my brother has been very ill, and is weak yet."

"Lena," he cried, "don't parade it before everybody;" but as he turned
his eyes with an irritable look to the lady and encountered hers, a
change came over him, and he clung to my arm, which he had thrust away.

"Thank you," he said. "Give me a hand to the side there. My legs are
shaky yet." Then with a smile which made his thin yellow face light up,
and gave him something the look of his sister, as he glanced at my
uniform--"You're not the captain, are you? Ah, that's better," he
sighed, as he leaned his arms on the bulwark, and drew a deep breath.
"Thank you. Just wait till we've been a month at sea, and I'll race you
all through the rigging."

"All right," I said, "you shall. My father says there's nothing like a
sea trip when you've been ill. He took me in his yacht after I had had
fever."

"And you got well in no time, didn't you?"

I nodded, as I looked at his wasted figure, and noted his eager, anxious
way.

"There, Lena, hear that," he said quickly. "I told you so." Then
turning to me again--"Come and sit near us in the cabin; I shan't be so
nasty and snappish when I've had my breakfast."

He laughed in a forced way, and promising that I would if I could, I
drew back to leave the brother and sister together, for Walters gave my
jacket a twitch.

"I say, I shall never get you round the ship," he said, in an ill-used
tone. "Now look here," he began, "this is the saloon-deck, that's the
mizzen-mast, and come along here and I'll show you the binnacle."

"Why, I know all these," I said, laughing merrily. "Come, I'll box the
compass