't make me so. Now, I appeal to the captain here. Has not the
boy been wandering about the deck all day with Bartlett, asking him
questions about the sails, and talking to the men, and using his glass
whenever there was a good bit of the land to see?"

"Well, yes."

"Well yes, indeed! What more do you want? We can only go on two legs,
we men; we can't fly."

"Captain Bradleigh seems of a different opinion with this yacht. He
makes us swim and pretty well fly."

"Yes, but what was Jack a month ago? Going about the house like a boy
in a nightmare, or else with his hands supporting his heavy head, while
he was A plus B-ing, squaring nothing, and extracting roots, or building
up calculations with logs. He isn't like the boy he was when he came on
board."

"That's true," said the captain quietly. "His interest is being
awakened, and something else too--his appetite."

"Yes; he certainly eats twice as much, and is not so particular as to
what it is."

"There!" cried the doctor triumphantly. "And what does that mean?"

"That the sea-air makes him hungry."

"Bah! that isn't all. It means that Nature keeps on asking for more
bricks and mortar to go on building up the works that were begun years
ago and not finished--muscle and bone and nerve, sir, so as to get him a
sound body; and mind you, a sound body generally means a sound brain.
Everything in a proper state of balance."

"I suppose you are right," said Sir John.

"Right? of course I am. Only give him time."

"Where is he now?"

"Along with Bartlett," said the captain.

"Yes, I can see him. They're examining something over the bows. Found
something fresh. Isn't that a healthy sign? He was only a bit tired
and bored just now. Look here, Meadows, you and I must not be too
anxious, and keep on letting him see that we are watching him. Why,
look at the other morning when he was just up from his sea-sickness. Do
you think if I had begged him to eat that rasher of ham he would have
touched it? Not he. Let him alone, and he'll soon be coming to us."

"Certainly that will be the best course. I should like to see though
what he is doing now?"

"Better leave him alone. Sensitive chap like that, with a body like a
little boy and a head like an old man, don't want to feel that he is
being led about by a nurse. But there, I must humour you, I suppose.
Come away."

The doctor set the example by rising, and they walked slowly forward,
hearing