rown-up person, and quite right too, as you are on the eve of a public
school. I wonder how you will settle down at Harrow next winter after
all this change! There is only one other boy of about the same age. I
saw you talking to him this morning; what do you make of him?

A "rotter"? Yes, I thought so too. He seems to consider that the
greatest fun on board is to rumple up the stewards' hair or to knock off
their caps, and as they can't retaliate it is poor sport. He never plays
games either, which is odd considering he is an Australian.

Oh, I hoped that child had sunk into a sweet slumber! He is a nuisance;
he can't be more than four, but he never seems to rest day or night, and
he spends the laziest hour of the afternoon dragging a squeaking cart up
and down the wooden deck, to the annoyance of everyone except the fond
mother, who encourages it as a sign of genius! Odd one never can travel
without at least one child of that sort on board. There's a nice alcove
aft behind the smoking-room where we may find refuge.

Yes, I grant the little girls are just as bad as the boys; there is that
pert spoilt little miss who rushes after the steward when he carries
round the _hors d'oeuvre_ before dinner and clamours for them.

"They're not for children," he told her.

"But mother doesn't forbid me to have them," she retorted, standing on
one leg with her finger in her mouth.

If she refrained from doing only what her mother _did_ forbid her she
would have a fairly easy time I think.

It is too stifling to sleep in the cabin, so we will try the deck
to-night. It is rather pleasant stepping out on to the warm dry boards
when the lights are out. The awning shuts us in overhead, but at the
side we can see the smooth water lying white in the moonlight. Here is
our place, with our mattresses laid out neatly side by side and the
number of our cabin scrawled in white chalk on the wooden boards beside
them. There is a story of a certain ape who got loose on board ship and
paid a visit to the deck when all the men were asleep! A funny sight it
must have been as he landed on the top of one after the other!

In spite of the calmness of the night it is always more or less noisy on
a ship: there is the flap of an awning, the crack of a rope, the
creaking of the plates, and the frilling away of the water past the
ship's side. I lie awake a long time, turning uneasily and feeling the
taste of the salt on my lips. At last, low down betw