Oh, how clear and beautiful a day it was, and how charmingly gracious Dame Ocean looked in her white caps and blue ruffles! Even the combination steamboat smell of dinner, oil, and close air was obliterated by the keen sea-breeze. The good ship Orizaba ploughed her way through the sparkling, sun-lit waves, traversing quickly the distance which lay between the young people and their destination. They watched the long white furrow that stretched in her wake, the cloud of black smoke which floated like a dark shadow above the laughing crests of the waves, and the flocks of sea-gulls sailing overhead, with wild shrill screams ever and anon swooping down for some bit of food flung from the ship, and then floating for miles on the waves. How they sung ‘Life on the Ocean Wave,’ ‘Bounding Billow,’ and ‘Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep!’ How Jack chanted,— ‘I wish I were a fish, With a great long tail; A tiny little tittlebat, A wiggle or a whale, In the middle of the great blue sea. Oh, my!’ ‘Oh, how I long to be there!’ exclaimed Philip, ‘to throw aside all the formal customs of a wicked world I abhor, and live a free life under the blue sky!’ ‘Why, Philip Noble! I never saw you inside of a house in my life,’ cried Polly. ‘Oh, yes; you’re mistaken. I’ve been obliged to eat most of my meals in the house, and sleep there; but I don’t approve of it, and it’s a trial to be borne with meekness only when there’s no remedy for it.’ ‘Besides,’ said Jack, ‘even when we are out-of-doors we are shelling the reluctant almond, poisoning the voracious gopher, pruning grape-vines, and “sich.” Now I am only going to shoot to eat, and eat to shoot!’ ‘Hope you’ve improved since last year, or you’ll have a low diet,’ murmured Phil, in an undertone. ‘The man of genius must expect to be the butt of ridicule,’ sighed Jack, meekly. ‘But you’ll not repine, although your heartstrings break, will you?’ said Polly, sympathisingly; ‘especially in the presence of several witnesses who have seen you handle a gun.’ ‘How glad I am that I’m too near-sighted to shoot,’ said Geoffrey, taking off the eye-glasses that made him look so wise and dignified. ‘I shall lounge under the trees, read Macaulay, and order the meals.’ ‘I shall need an assistant about the camp,’ said Aunt Truth, smilingly; ‘but I hardly think he’ll have much time to lounge; when everything else fails, there’s always Dicky, you know.’ Geoffrey looked discouraged. ‘And, furthermore, I declare by the nose of the great Tam o’ Shanter that I will cut down every tree in the vicinity ere you shall lounge under it,’ said Jack. ‘Softly, my boy. Hill’s blue-gum forest is not so very far away. You’ll have your hands full,’ laughed Dr. Paul. Here Margery and Bell joined the group after a quick walk up and down the deck.