"Five and three-quarters--long fingers; so she tells me." He sighed, and then wandered to the window, whistling "Robin Adair." "Now, Dennis, you promised me to go straight to bed. Turn in we must, for I have to be on an early parade." "All right, Willie. Good-night, and a thousand thanks to you. It's been a great evening--I never was so happy in my life. Come along, Jack." And off he went, tossing his head and singing to the air he had been whistling, "Who in the song so sweet? Eileen aroon! Who in the dance so fleet? Eileen aroon! Dear were her charms to me, Dearer her laughter free, Dearest her constancy, Eileen aroon!" "She'll be married to a sugar-planter before you've cut your wisdom teeth!" bawled the engineer from his bedroom. "_Will she_?" retorted Dennis, and half-laughing, half-sentimentally, he sang on louder than before, "Were she no longer true, Eileen aroon! What should her lover do? Eileen aroon! Fly with his broken chain, Far o'er the bounding main, Never to love again, Eileen aroon!" Willie made no reply. He evidently meant to secure what sleep there was to be had, and as Dennis did not seem in the mood for discussing our prospects as seamen, I turned into my hammock and pulled it well round my ears to keep out bats, night-moths, and the like. It was thus that I failed at first to hear when Dennis began to talk to somebody out of the window. But when I lifted my head I could hear what he said, and from the context I gathered that the other speaker was no less than Alister, who, having taken his sleep early in the night, was now refreshing himself by a stroll at dawn. That they were squabbling with unusual vehemence was too patent, and I was at once inclined to lay the blame on Dennis, who ought, I felt, to have been brimming over with generous sympathy, considering how comfortable we had been, and poor Alister had not. But I soon discovered that the matter was no personal one, being neither more nor less than an indignant discussion as to whether the air which Dennis was singing was "Scotch" or "Irish." As I only caught the Irish side of the argument, I am not qualified to pronounce any opinion. "Of course facts are facts, no one denies that. And it's likely enough your grandmother sang 'Robin Adair' to it, and your great-grandmother too, rest her soul! But it would take an uncommonly _great-grandmother_ of mine to have sung it when it was new, for it's one of the oldest of old Irish airs." * * * * *