Now this ship was an old wagon-body, and had never been in water deeper than a mud puddle. A dozen little girls climbed in with great bustle and confusion, pretending they were walking a plank and climbing up some steps. After they were fairly on board they waved their handkerchiefs for a good by to their friends on shore. Then Octavia fired peas out of a little popgun twice, and this was meant as a long farewell to the land. Now they were fairly out on the ocean, and began to rock back and forth, as if tossed by a heavy sea. "See how the waves rise!" said Emily, and threw up her hands with an undulating motion. "I can see them," she cried, an intent look coming into her closed eyes; "they are green, with white bubbles like soap suds. And the sun shines on them so! O, 'tis as beautiful as flowers!" "Booful as flowers!" echoed Flyaway, who was one of the passengers; while Dotty wondered how Octavia knew the difference between green and white. She did not know; and what sort of a picture she painted in her mind of the mysterious sea I am sure I cannot tell. "Now," said Miriam Lake, the prettiest of the children, "it is time to strike the bells." So she struck a tea-bell with a stick eight times. "That is eight bells," explained she to Dotty, "and it means four o'clock. But, Jennie Holiday, where is the kitten? Why, we are not half ready." The children never thought they could play "ship" without a kitten, a gray and white one which they put into a cage just as Jennie Holiday did, when she and Rollo travelled by themselves from New York to Liverpool. When the kitten had been brought, they had got as far as Long Island Sound, and they said the kitten was sent by a ship of war which had to be "spoken." "This is a funny way to play," said Miriam. "Here we are at Halifax, and nobody has heaved the log yet." "No," said Octavia; "so we can't tell how many knots an hour we are going." "_I'm_ going a great many knocks," cried Katie, whose exertions in rocking from side to side had thrown her overboard once. "We never'll get to Liverpool in this world," said Emily, "unless Miss Percival comes and steers the ship." It happened at that very moment that Miss Percival came into the yard with aunt Maria. "If you will excuse me, Mrs. Clifford," said she, laughing, "I will take command of this ship." "No apologies are necessary," replied Mrs. Clifford. "I should be very glad to watch your proceedings. Is it possible, Miss Percival, that you are capable of guiding a vessel across the Atlantic?" "I have often tried it," said Miss Percival, going on board; "but we sometimes have a shipwreck."