eople
who had to crawl under the seat to pick up things that had got lost.

"Never mind," said Akela, "we shall be in the sea this evening, and then
we shall be cool."

That started everyone jumping for joy again, of course.

Presently the train passed Arundel Castle--its white towers and turrets
and battlements rising up amidst the dark green woods like an enchanted
castle in the days of knights and fairies--and the Cubs learnt that
there are castles in real life as well as in story-books.

After that they began looking out of the window to see who would be the
first one to catch sight of the sea. "Bunny" was the first to, and his
friend Bert, the Senior Sixer, came a close second.

At last the train got to Portsmouth Harbour, and, shouldering their
kit-bags, the Cubs ran down on to the steamer.

The harbour was thrilling: battleships, cruisers, torpedo-boats, the
Royal yacht, the Admiralty yacht, and, most interesting of all, Nelson's
ship, the _Victory_. As if the steamer knew that a crowd of eager Cubs
were longing to see all round the _Victory_, it went out of its way to
steam right round it, slowly and quite near, and the Cubs had a splendid
view.

The boys all wanted to be the first to _touch_ the sea, but Bunny, who
had _seen_ it first, forestalled them again, by letting down a ball of
string over the edge of the boat and pulling it up all wet.

At last the ship reached the Isle of Wight, and the Cubs and their great
mountain of camp luggage went down the long pier. I forgot to tell you
that besides Akela there was the Senior Sixer's father and mother, who
were coming to help look after the camp--they became the "Father and
Mother of Camp"; and there was also a lady who was a very kind camp
Godmother. The grown-ups and the luggage were soon packed into a large
motor-car, and then, relieved of their kit-bags, the Cubs set out to
walk the two miles along the sea-front to the village called Sea View.
The way lay along a thing called a "sea-wall"--a high stone wall about
six feet broad running along above the shore, with the sea lapping up
against it at high tide. Along this the Cubs walked (or rather ran and
jumped), their eyes big with wonder at the great stretch of blue, blue
sea, with here and there a distant sailing-boat, and, above, the sky
even bluer than the sea. "I didn't know the sky _could_ be so blue!"
said a Cub; and that was just how they all felt.

It was very hot walking in the midday sun.