about to deliver a palpable truism. "W'en
you've come to live as long as me you'll find that everything turns out
different from what people have bin led to expect. Leastways that's
_my_ experience."

"Well, in the meantime, till I have come to your time of life, I'll take
your word for that, and I do hope you intend to stay a long time here."

"No, my son, I don't. Why do ye ask?"

"Because I like the place and the people so much that I would like to
study it and them, and to sketch the scenery."

"Business before pleasure, my lad," said the captain with a grave shake
of the head. "You know we've bin blown out of our course, and have no
business here at all. I'll only wait till the carpenter completes his
repairs, and then be off for Batavia. Duty first; everything else
afterwards."

"But you being owner as well as commander, there is no one to insist on
duty being done," objected Nigel.

"Pardon me," returned the captain, "there is a certain owner named
Captain David Roy, a very stern disciplinarian, who insists on the
commander o' this here brig performin' his duty to the letter. You may
depend upon it that if a man ain't true to himself he's not likely to be
true to any one else. But it's likely that we may be here for a couple
of days, so I release _you_ from duty that you may make the most o' your
time and enjoy yourself. By the way, it will save you wastin' time if
you ask that little girl, Kathy Holbein, to show you the best places to
sketch, for she's a born genius with her pencil and brush."

"No, thank you, father," returned Nigel. "I want no little girl to
bother me while I'm sketching--even though she be a born genius--for I
think I possess genius enough myself to select the best points for
sketching, and to get along fairly well without help. At least I'll try
what I can do."

"Please yourself, lad. Nevertheless, I think you wouldn't find poor
Kathy a bother; she's too modest for that--moreover, she could manage a
boat and pull a good oar when I was here last, and no doubt she has
improved since."

"Nevertheless, I'd rather be alone," persisted Nigel. "But why do you
call her _poor_ Kathy? She seems to be quite as strong and as jolly as
the rest of her brothers and sisters."

"Ah, poor thing, these are not her brothers and sisters," returned the
captain in a gentler tone. "Kathy is only an adopted child, and an
orphan. Her name, Kathleen, is not a Dutch one. She came to these