"Now your argument is lame," said the captain, laughing. "We have plenty of good machinery, system, and rules aboard, but if I wasn't around, looking after everything all the time, as a special Providence, I'm afraid you'd find salt water before Liverpool." A general laugh followed this sally, and Gregory said: "And so I believe that the Divine Providence superintends His own laws and system. I think my friend the captain has given a most happy illustration of the truth, and I had no idea he was so good a theologian." "That's not an argument," said the man, considerably crestfallen. "That's only a joke." "By the way, Mr. Gregory, it seems to me that your views have changed since you crossed with me last," remarked the captain. "I frankly admit they have," was the prompt reply. "Perhaps I can explain myself by the following question: If you find, by a careful observation, that you are heading your ship the wrong way, what do you do?" "Put her about on the right course." "That is just what I have tried to do, sir. I think my meaning is plain?" "Nothing could be clearer, and I'd rather be aboard now than when you were on the old tack." Annie gave Gregory a glance of glad, grateful approval that warmed his heart like sunshine. Hunting said, enviously, _sotto voce_, "I think such conversation at a public table wretched taste." "I cannot agree with you," said Annie, decidedly; "but, granting it, Mr. Gregory did not introduce the subject, and I wish you had spoken as he did when every Christian at the table was insulted." He colored deeply, but judiciously said nothing. With increasing pain she thought, "He who says he is not a Christian acts more like one than he who claims the character." But she now had the strongest hopes for Gregory, and longed for a private talk with him. The next day it blew quite a gale, and Hunting and Miss Eulie were helplessly confined to their staterooms. But Annie had become a sailor, and having done all she could for her aunt, came upon deck, where she saw Gregory walking back and forth with almost the steadiness of one of the ship's officers. She tried to go to him, but would have fallen had he not seen her and reached her side almost at a bound. With a gentleness and tenderness as real as delicate, he placed her in a sheltered nook where she could see the waves in their mad sport, and said, "Now you can see old ocean in one of his best moods. The wind, though strong, is right abaft, filling all the sails they dare carry, and we are making grand progress." "How wonderful it is!" cried Annie, looking with a child's interest upon the scene. "Just see those briny mountains, with foam and spray for foliage. If our own Highlands with their mingled evergreens and snow were changed from granite to water, and set in this wild motion, it could hardly seem more strange and sublime. Look at that great monster coming so threateningly toward us. It seems as if we should be engulfed beyond a chance."