ead swam.

Returning from a walk on deck, Joe found his guardian lying down in
the stateroom.

"Is anything the matter, Mr. Folsom?"

"Nothing but what I expected. The demon of the sea has me in his
gripe."

"Can I do anything for you?"

"Nothing at present, Joe. What art can minister to a stomach
diseased? I must wait patiently, and it will wear off. Don't you
feel any of the symptoms?"

"Oh, no--I feel bully," said Joe. "I've got a capital appetite."

"I hope you will be spared. It would be dismal for both of us to be
groaning with seasickness."

"Shall I stay with you?"

"No--go on deck. That is the best way to keep well. My sickness
won't last more than a day or two."

The young man's expectations were realized. After forty-eight hours
he recovered from his temporary indisposition and reappeared on deck.

He found that his young companion, had made a number of
acquaintances, and had become a general favorite through his frank
and pleasant manners.

"I think you'll get on, Joe," said he. "You make friends easily."

"I try to do it," said Joe modestly.

"You are fast getting over your country greenness. Of course you
couldn't help having a share of it, having never lived outside of a
small country village."

"I am glad you think so, Mr. Folsom. I suppose I was very green and
I haven't got over it yet, but in six months I hope to get rid of it
wholly."

"It won't take six months at the rate you are advancing."

Day succeeded day and Joe was not sick at all. He carried a good
appetite to every meal and entered into the pleasures of sea life
with zest. He played shuffle-board on deck, guessed daily the ship's
run, was on the alert for distant sails, and managed in one way or
another to while away the time cheerfully.

They had got into the Gulf of Mexico, when, one day, there was an
unwonted commotion in the steerage.

A poor German had lost forty dollars, the entire capital he was
carrying with him to the new country.

"Some tief has rob me," he complained, in accents of mingled grief
and anger. "He has rob me of all my gold. He has not left me one
cent."

"When did you miss the money?" inquired the first officer.

"Just now," said the poor German.

"When did you see it last?"

"Last night when I went to mine bed."

"Did you take off your clothes?"

"No."

"What men sleep near you?"

The German pointed to two. The first was a German.

"But he would not rob me.