daughters about?"

"I'm sure I don't want to go. You and the girls made me."

"I made you? I never made you do anything in your life which you did
not like. My beloved, you are losing your temper!"

"I tell you I am as cool as a cucumber!" answered the lady, the tone of
her voice belying the assertion.

"Don't fall out about it, papa," said a younger voice. "You are
inclined to be aggravating."

"My dear, I am as calm as your mamma," said the major.

"Then why do you come here and accuse me of doing what I didn't?" cried
the lady. "I will not stand such treatment. It is all your fault!"

"It's your fault, I say! Why was that case left behind?"

"It was not my fault," exclaimed Mrs Bubsby. "I'll teach you not to
repeat such falsehoods!" There was a slight scream from Eugenia, echoed
by Angelica, while some sounds greatly resembling those produced when a
person is having his ears boxed, proceeded through the canvas. Directly
afterwards the major, with a flushed countenance and a bald head, rushed
out at the door, followed by a wig sent as a missile after him. On
seeing Captain Rogers reading at the further corner of the cabin, he
tried to pick it up, but the vessel giving a gentle roll at the time,
sent him flying into the middle of the cabin before he had succeeded in
his object. Pulling out his handkerchief in a vain endeavour to conceal
his shaven crown, he uttered a groan. Jack tried not to look at him,
but believing that he had been hurt, was compelled at length to inquire
what was the matter.

"I confessed to you, Captain Rogers, that I made use of some false teeth
in addition to my own natural ones, and now you have discovered that I
wear a wig. But you will not, I trust, make it known to my officers, or
they may lose the respect they now entertain for me."

A scornful laugh from within showed that the major's last observation
had been overheard, and that some one did not agree with it.

Jack, however, kindly rising from his seat, picked up the major's wig,
and having handed it to him, helped him to get on his legs.

"Do you wish to return to your cabin?" asked Jack.

The major shook his head. "Not at present," he whispered; "I'll wait
until the storm has blown over. She is a good woman," pointing with his
thumb to where it might be supposed Mrs Bubsby was standing; "but she's
a little hasty, as you see, at times. I would have left her behind, but
I could not bring my girls without a