had no lateral pressure to steady her--as would have been the case
if the breeze had been abeam or on her quarter--she listed first to port
and then to starboard, with the "send" of the sea, as regularly as the
swing of a clock's pendulum. Really, the oscillation made it almost as
impossible for Fritz to move about as if the ship had been contending
with all the powers of the elements in a heavy storm, whereas the
skipper said she was only "going easy," with a fair wind!

Why, the "breeze" had not lasted a day, before nearly every particle of
glass and crockery-ware in the steward's cabin was smashed to atoms;
while preventer stays had to be rove to save the masts from parting
company.

Roll, eh? She did roll--roll with a vengeance!

Fortunately, this did not last long; the wind shifting round to the
north-east, after a three days' spell from the west, which brought the
ship on a bow line, steering, as she was, south-east and by south. Had
not this change come when it did, "the old tub would hev rolled her
bottom out," as Mr Slater, the whilom deck hand, "guessed" one morning
to Fritz, while the crew were engaged in washing decks.

Of course, the brothers themselves had many a chat together while the
voyage lasted, talking over their plans as well as chatting about the
different scenes and circumstances surrounding the endless panorama of
sea and sky, sky and sea, now daily unfolded before them.

Naturally--to Fritz, at least--all was new; and it was deeply
interesting to him to notice the alteration in the aspect of the heavens
which each night produced as the ship ran to the southward. The north
star had disappeared with its pointers, as well as other familiar
stellar bodies belonging to higher latitudes; but, a new and more
brilliant constellation had risen up in the sky within his new range of
view, which each evening became more and more distinct.

This was the Southern Cross, as it is called, consisting of four stars,
three of the first magnitude and the fourth somewhat smaller, arranged
in the form of an oblique crucifix, pointing across the firmament
"athwartship-like," as the skipper explained one night-watch when the
brothers were looking out together. Only once in the year, Captain
Brown said, is this cross perfectly perpendicular towards the zenith;
for, as it circles round our planet, it reverses its position, finally
turning upside-down.

When the _Pilot's Bride_ ceased to roll and began to mak