re lovely than ever; but her
spirits were subdued by contemplation of the dangers attending the
voyage upon which we were now so soon to embark. The poor girl had been
thinking of little else, it seemed, during our absence, until the
liveliest alarm had taken the place of that confidence with which she
had viewed the expedition when it was first broached.

But Bob and I had talked matters over together in many a quiet night-
watch, canvassing the various emergencies which might arise, and the
best mode of meeting them; and we were now confident that, with only the
ordinary perils of the ocean to contend with, our adventure was not only
feasible, but that it would certainly be crowned with success. And so
we were well prepared to do battle with Ada's apprehensions, which we
did so vigorously that we at length succeeded in restoring, in a great
measure, the confidence she had lost.

We arranged, after a considerable amount of discussion, that our own
house should be let, furnished as it was, during my absence, and that my
sister should take up her quarters with an aunt who resided on the
Esplanade, Mrs Moseley accompanying her, with unlimited leave of
absence from time to time to visit her own relatives.

These arrangements completed, Bob and I set out for London again, to
superintend the rigging of our boat and to bring her round to Weymouth,
from whence we intended to take our final departure.

On our arrival we found the little craft already in the water, with her
mast stepped and her ballast (which was of lead, cast to fit the shape
of her bottom) in. A portion of her ballast, consisting of a piece of
lead weighing five hundredweight, was let into her keel about the
midship section, and this, with two tons of lead inside, we thought
would prove sufficient, after our "cargo" was stowed. Part of this
cargo we intended to take from London with us, viz., the water-tank,
filled, second suit of sails and flying-kites in the shape of spinnaker,
jib-topsail, square-headed gaff-topsail, etcetera, also a four-pound
rifle gun, with a stock of powder and shot, and a few percussion shells.

These we decided to take in case of our being obliged to assume a
warlike attitude towards any savages we might come in contact with, as
we had heard that the natives of some of the Pacific islands are
particularly ferocious, and require to be dealt with promptly. We also
provided ourselves with a couple of air-guns of improved constru