ul in a way, so I suppose I must
make the best of you; and, anyhow, we shan't see much of each other,
except at meals."

"Shan't we? Why, are you going to spend most of your time on board your
barge, steering?"

"Not I. I've engaged a man. Didn't I tell you. A nice, handy man, not
too big for his boots, or rather, his carpet slippers. He'll cook,
sweep, dust, and make beds as well as keep the barge steady."

"While I'm skipper of 'Lorelei,' nobody wears carpet slippers, or purple
velvet ones either, on board this boat or her tender. I suppose, if
you're not going to steer, you mean to occupy yourself in your studio,
painting. A wise arrangement----"

"From your point of view. But it isn't my intention. I shall--if the
ladies don't object--sit mostly on 'Lorelei's' deck, making sketches,
and entertaining them as well as I know how--though not with technical
information."

"I shall be there to give them that, if they want it," said I.

"_You?_ You'll have to be at the bow, skippering."

"I don't skipper at the bow, thank you. I skipper on deck aft, where I
stand at the wheel and have full control of the engine through this long
lever that's carried up from the engine-room."

"Hang it, I thought Hendrik, as chauffeur, would have to be there, and
you'd keep a sort of outlook with a binnacle or something, for'rard. You
_are_ going to be a regular Albatross to my Ancient Mariner, aren't
you?"

"Don't forget that it's by grace of the Albatross that you're a Mariner
at all."

"I shall call you 'Alb,' when I feel your weight too much," said Starr,
and then we two villains of the piece could not forbear a grin in each
other's faces. I even found myself wondering if the Ancient One and his
Bird might not form for one another a kind of attachment of habit, in
the end.

It's certainly a queer association, this of ours, but as the Mariner
proposed to do, we began to make the best of it; and we finished my
visit to the boat on outwardly friendly terms. We even sat on deck and
put our heads together over my note-book, in which I jotted down a plan
of the tour. With "Lorelei," I assured him, we had but to choose our
route, for as she draws only from three to three and a half feet of
water, all the waterways are open to us. Did she draw more, she would be
useless, even in certain rivers, in a dry season such as this is
proving, and in many small canals at any season. There's only one thing
which may bother us in the Frisia