"Then it never will," I remember thinking to myself as I looked at his smooth cheeks and chin, while he carefully combed and brushed his hair as he stood in his trousers and shirt, and then opened a little box and took out three neckerchiefs, all different in colour. "Which one would you wear, Mr Dale?" he said, as he looked up at me. "Oh, I don't know," I cried merrily; "which you like best--the blue one. There's plenty of blue sky and blue sea now." "Yes, you're right," he said, eagerly. "And--you wouldn't mind, would you?" "Mind what, sir?" "Showing me how to tie a sailor's knot. I never could manage it properly." I showed him, and then he put on a white waistcoat and a blue serge jacket, like that worn by a yachting-man, buttoned up tightly, and looked at me again. "It's very kind of you to help me," he said; "but do you think it's fine enough for a straw hat?" I shook my head as I pictured his round, plump, white face under the straight brim, and thought how comic it would look. "I should wear that," I said, pointing to a yachtsman's blue woollen peaked cap. "There's so much wind, and it will keep on better." "Of course; you are quite right," he said. "It's because you have had so much experience of the sea. But it isn't quite so becoming as the straw, is it?" I stared at him wonderingly as I thought how vain he must be; but I said it looked right enough. "I should keep the straw hat for when we get down into the hot parts, sir," I said. "To be sure; so I will. Do you know, that wash seems to have done me a lot of good, Mr Dale. I really think I feel better." "Then you'll be all right now, sir. I should get the steward to give me a basin of soup." He shuddered, and gave me a look of horror. "I couldn't touch it," he whispered. "Don't ask me. Not now." "Wait till you've been on deck a bit, sir." "Yes, yes," he said, excitedly; and after another look in the glass he told me he was ready, and we went out to go on deck: but he declined to go up the steps to where the captain would be with the other passengers, and said he would go forward to have a look at the fish; but before he had gone many steps, he altered his mind. "I do feel better, Mr Dale," he said, with a half-laugh, "and I think I will go up and pay my respects to the captain and--and the other passengers," and then, talking eagerly to me about his fish, and carefully preserving his balance, we went up on the poop-deck, with the ship gliding along swiftly and more easily. The captain saw us, and came to meet him along with Mr Brymer, the first mate, and both shook hands warmly. "Glad, to see you on deck, sir. There, you've got over your bit of trouble. It was rather a rough beginning." "Yes, and of course I'm not much used to the sea, Captain Berriman," said Mr Preddle, as he walked on by his side with legs rather widely apart, I following behind with Mr Brymer.