le fished on, now and then
congratulating his hopeful nephew on his accomplishment. At the end of
his rich vocabulary the urchin sauntered off into the fields, and
shortly returned with a bunch of flowers, and with all smiles handed
them to me with the innocence of an angel. I remembered having seen
the same flower on the banks of the river farther up, some years
before. I asked the young pirate why he had brought them to me. Said
he, "I don't know; I only wished to do so." Whatever the influence was
that put so amiable a wish in this wild pampa boy, it must be
far-reaching, thought I, and potent, seas over.

Shortly after, the _Spray_ sailed for Montevideo, where she arrived on
the following day and was greeted by steam-whistles till I felt
embarrassed and wished that I had arrived unobserved. The voyage so
far alone may have seemed to the Uruguayans a feat worthy of some
recognition; but there was so much of it yet ahead, and of such an
arduous nature, that any demonstration at this point seemed, somehow,
like boasting prematurely.

The _Spray_ had barely come to anchor at Montevideo when the agents of
the Royal Mail Steamship Company, Messrs. Humphreys & Co., sent word
that they would dock and repair her free of expense and give me twenty
pounds sterling, which, they did to the letter, and more besides. The
calkers at Montevideo paid very careful attention to the work of
making the sloop tight. Carpenters mended the keel and also the
life-boat (the dory), painting it till I hardly knew it from a
butterfly.

Christmas of 1895 found the _Spray_ refitted even to a wonderful
makeshift stove which was contrived from a large iron drum of some
sort punched full of holes to give it a draft; the pipe reached
straight up through the top of the forecastle. Now, this was not a
stove by mere courtesy. It was always hungry, even for green wood; and
in cold, wet days off the coast of Tierra del Fuego it stood me in
good stead. Its one door swung on copper hinges, which one of the yard
apprentices, with laudable pride, polished till the whole thing
blushed like the brass binnacle of a P. & O. steamer.

The _Spray_ was now ready for sea. Instead of proceeding at once on
her voyage, however, she made an excursion up the river, sailing
December 29. An old friend of mine, Captain Howard of Cape Cod and of
River Plate fame, took the trip in her to Buenos Aires, where she
arrived early on the following day, with a gale of wind and a