cing up at
Chilian.

"Pussy is not used to children. He always runs away from them. But I
think he will like you when he gets acquainted."

She turned to the window with a swelling heart. It seemed so cold and
strange. It was better on shipboard, she thought. She had come to know
the sailors quite well and Missy had grown to be a great favorite with
them. There was always something cheerful going on. They sang songs in
their loud clear voices, or whistled merry tunes. They danced as well.
She was quite used to the dancing-girls at Calcutta, and when they were
at Hong Kong or other ports. But the Indian girls pleased her best.

The sailors seemed always full of fun, even in the worst of times.
During some fearful storms she was safely housed in the cabin, and it
amused her to see the things pitch and roll as far as their chains would
allow them. Sometimes, too, they had to hold the food in their hands,
but she never knew the danger of the worst storms. Rachel would not
admit that she was afraid, and the captain said, "Yes, we're having a
stiff blow, but the _Flying Star_ has weathered many a gale before." And
here it was so very quiet. It looked dreary outside, with the leafless
trees. She liked the toss and tumult of the waves with their snowy,
jewelled crests, and the clouds scudding along the sky, which she
imagined was another sea full of ships. Often they went in port and
there was nothing left but the blue sky above--a great hollow vault. And
when the sun shone the real sea and ocean was in flames of such splendid
colors. There was no end of curious people at ports where they stopped
for supplies, there was always something strange, even when they were
days alone on the water. For the sunset and sunrise were never twice
alike. Then the moon from its tiny crescent to the great round globe
that illumined the world with her fairy richness and scattered jewels on
every crested wave. She had watched it turn the other way and grow
smaller and smaller until you saw it vaguely in the morning.

She was so interested in the stories they told about it, the signs and
wonders they ascribed to it.

"And was it ever a real world like that we have left behind?" she asked
of the captain. "Were there people in it? And land, and rivers, and
growing things, and flowers?" and her wondering eyes grew larger.

"No one can tell now. Some astronomers believe it a burned-out world and
the things we take for a man," laughing, "and the