st.

"Good-bye; God bless you, my boy!" he cried. "It's all for the best,
and I won't worry about your going; only come back to me as soon as you
can, and mind you write."

I can remember that there was a curious dim look about everything just
then, and that Uncle Dick was very quiet in the cab; and so he was in
the train, speaking to me hardly at all, and afterwards he read to
himself nearly all the way to Paris, after which he suddenly seemed to
turn merry and bright, and chatted to me in the heartiest way.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

OUT ON THE BLUE WATER.

Everything was so new to me that, on embarking at Marseilles, I was
never tired of inspecting the large steamer, and trying, with only
moderate success, to talk to the French sailors, who, on learning our
destination, were very civil; but, after the first day or two, began to
joke me about never coming back any more.

It was comical work trying to make out what they meant as they began to
talk to me about the terrible wild beasts I should meet, and, above all,
about the orang-outangs, which they assured me were eight or nine feet
high, and would look upon me, they assured me, as a _bonne bouche_.

The third day out on the beautiful blue water, as some of the passengers
had guns out, and were shooting at the sea-birds for amusement merely, a
practice that I should have thought very cruel but for the fact that
they never once hit anything, Uncle Dick came up to me on the poop deck
and clapped me on the shoulder.

"Now, Nat," he said, "there's plenty of room out here for a rifle ball
to go humming away as far as it likes without danger to anyone; so get
out your rifle and you shall have a practice."

"At the sea-gulls, uncle?" I said.

"No, no; nonsense!" he said; "we don't shoot sea-gulls with a rifle. I
shall start you with a target."

"A target, uncle?" I said; "but if you do, we shall leave it all behind
in a very short time."

"To be sure we shall," he replied, laughing; "and then we'll have
another."

I ran down and got my rifle out of the cabin, feeling half ashamed to go
on deck again when I had fastened on my belt full of cartridges; but I
got over my modesty, and joined my uncle, whom I found waiting for me
with half a dozen black wine bottles, and as many bladders blown out
tightly, while the bottles were empty and firmly corked.

"Now, Nat," he said, "here are your targets, and I reckon upon your
having half a dozen shots at each before t