n pursuit.

"Glorious!" was his only response; but I thought it quite sufficient.

CHAPTER VI.

THE SCHOONER-YACHT.

There are some unfortunate children who seem fated to have their
holidays and special occasions drowned in rain. I, on the contrary,
belonged to the favoured class, accustomed always to expect, and almost
always to enjoy, sunshine bright and glorious, whensoever birth-days,
high days, and whole holidays made me specially prize and value it.

So it was by no means with surprise that I opened my eyes the next
morning to find the sun's golden rays streaming in at my window, and to
observe, on jumping up and looking out, that there was not a cloud to be
seen, save, indeed, the shadowy gray morning mist that was fast
dispersing over the sea. I pattered hastily into Aleck's room before
proceeding to the business of the toilet, to awaken him, and to urge
upon him the desirability of getting up as soon as possible, and coming
down with me into the garden to gather a nosegay for my mother, an
institution of three years' standing, and which I would not upon any
account have dispensed with. Aleck murmured such a very sleepy assent to
my views, that I was constrained to resort to extreme measures, lest he
should "go off" again, and accordingly took to the gentle persuasion of
water sprinkled on his face, the counterpane delicately withdrawn from
his bed, and similar little attentions, which I felt to have been
completely successful, when a pillow, wielded with the vigour of
self-defence, gave notice that hostilities were about to be returned,
and I withdrew to my own room.

It was not long before we were both out in the garden busily engaged in
a careful inspection of the flower-beds, preparatory to the
flower-gathering. Any flowers I liked, I might gather on this particular
morning, but as the nosegay must not be too large, choice was difficult.
Aleck made plenty of fun, but in reality gave little help.

"What's the use of my advising you," he said, not without reason; "you
never take my advice when you get it?" And, in truth, I had uniformly
taken the opposite line to the one he suggested, choosing a scarlet
geranium where he offered a light-coloured verbena, and a rose when he
had suggested mignonnette.

"You see," I explained, "mamma won't care for it unless I arrange it all
myself. Then Nurse has a lace paper ready which I shall put round it to
make it look better. If you like you can hold the f