"Yes," returned her sister, opening her eyes only to close them at
once. "I'm awake, but it's the queerest thing. So long as I keep my
eyes closed I'm quite comfortable, but when I open them I feel as if I
were in a high swing just ready to tumble out; and when Texas gets to
pitching around in his cage, and hanging fairly upside down, and
whirling around like a crazy thing, it makes me a great deal worse."

Hope laughed.

"Poor Texas! I don't think he's very happy himself. I wonder, are
birds ever seasick, really? I've heard they often mope and die on
shipboard, but is it seasickness?"

"I'm sure I don't know--but let's not talk about it! What time do you
suppose it is, Hope?"

"Oh, somewhere along in the afternoon. Somebody says there's no time
at sea--it's all now. Heigh-ho! I've half a mind to get up and
dress--why-y, what's that?"

Sure enough! Even Faith opened her eyes wide to stare upward, for
there was something sliding through one of the portholes above their
heads, and dropping softly downwards--a small package done up in
crinkly pink paper, and tied neatly about with blue lutestring.

"It's father!" cried Hope, as she scrambled to her knees to peer out,
but she could see nobody on the narrow guards without.

Meanwhile Faith grasped the little packet and began to untie it,
forgetting her illness in her eagerness.

The paper, when opened, disclosed two sea biscuits--the square, thin
kind, like a soda cracker--and upon each was painted a tiny marine view
in water-colors, while beneath was a couplet done in fanciful
lettering. One read,

"Hope for a season bade the world farewell,
And Freedom shrieked--as Kosciusko fell,"

while the other bore the legend,

"Our Faith, a star, shone o'er a rocky height;
The billows rose, and she was quenched in night."

"How absurd! How funny! Who did it?" they cried in concert,
forgetting all ill feelings as they laughed till the tears came.

"It never was father," said Hope, when she could get her voice. "The
dear man couldn't repeat a line of poetry to save his life. That one
about Kosciusko used to be in one of our school speakers, don't you
know?"

"Yes, it's Campbell's." Faith always remembered more accurately than
her sister, while the latter learned more readily. "But who would ever
think of applying it so oddly? The play on our names is bright enough,
but--I'll tell you, I'll tell you! It was that boy--Dwight Vanderhoff.