country. It isn't so much the actual cold I'd hate as it would be having
to stay indoors half the time because it was too cold to go outside." He
sniffed the salt air. "Guess my folks have been sea-dogs too many
hundred years for me to cotton to anything that means indoors."

"Me, too," said his chum. "From what I know about the _Miami_, what's
more, I don't believe we're going to spend too much time ashore. When
are we sailing, have you heard?"

"Day after to-morrow, I believe," Eric replied. "We're going right down
to our southern station."

"The Gulf?"

"Yes, and Florida waters as far north as Fernandina," was the answer.

"The sooner the quicker, so far as I'm concerned," said the other, as
they strolled below.

Two days later the _Miami_ was steaming down Chesapeake Bay. The weather
was ugly and there was a little cross-current that kept the cutter
dancing. Eric had his sea legs, after his summer on the _Bear_, but he
was surprised to find how different was the motion of a steamer and a
sailing ship. The other junior lieutenant, whom he had already come to
like rather well, laughed as Eric stumbled at a particularly vicious
roll.

"This isn't anything," he said. "Wait until we strike the edge of the
Gulf Stream. Then she's apt to kick up her heels a bit. And you ought to
see the _Yamacraw_! She's got any of these modern dances pushed off the
map!"

"I don't mind it," Eric answered, "only it's a different kind of roll.
I'm just off the _Bear_. She rolls enough, but it's a longer sort of
roll, not short jerks like this."

"Of course," said the other, nodding; "bound to be. A ship under sail
is more or less heeled over and she's kept steady by the pressure of the
wind on the sail. The long roll you're talking about isn't the sea, but
the gustiness of the wind. That's what makes the long roll."

"At that," said Eric, "it seems to me that the _Miami's_ pretty lively
now for all the sea there is."

"There's more sea than you'd reckon," was the reply. "Chesapeake Bay can
kick up some pretty didoes when in the mood. You'd never believe how
suddenly a storm can strike, nor how much trouble it can make. You see
that skeleton lighthouse over there?"

"Yes," said the boy. "Smith's Point, isn't it? I remember learning all
these lights by heart," and he rattled off a string of names, being the
lights down Chesapeake Bay.

"I see you haven't forgotten the Academy yet," said the other. "Yes,
that's Smith's Point T