amples of, and all that, when the
good ones catch them."

"So they are," said the youth, smiling. "I never thought of that
before. But go on with your ramble in the clouds."

"Well," began Ailie; "but where was I?"

"Just going to be introduced to a bear."

"Oh yes; well--the bear walked slowly away, and then the fairy called
out an elephant, and after that a 'noceros--"

"A 'noceros!" interrupted Glynn; "what's that?"

"Oh, you know very well. A beast with a thick skin hanging in folds,
and a horn on its nose--"

"Ah, a _rhi_noceros--I see. Well, go on, Ailie."

"Then the fairy told a camel to appear, and after that a monkey, and
then a hippopotamus, and they all came out one after another, and some
of them went away, and others began to fight. But the strangest thing
of all was, that every one of them was _so_ like the pictures of wild
beasts that are hanging in my room at home! The elephant, too, I
noticed, had his trunk broken exactly the same way as my toy elephant's
one was. Wasn't it odd?"

"It was rather odd," replied Glynn; "but where did you go after that?"

"Oh, then we went on, and on again, until we came to--"

"It's your turn at the wheel, lad, ain't it?" inquired Mr Millons,
coming up at that moment, and putting an abrupt termination to the walk
in Fairyland.

"It is, sir," answered Glynn, springing quickly to the wheel, and
relieving the man who had been engaged in penetrating the ocean's
depths.

The mate walked forward; the released sailor went below, and Ailie was
again left to her solitary meditations;--for she was enough of a sailor
now, in heart, to know that she ought not to talk too much to the
steersman, even though the weather should be calm and there was no call
for his undivided attention to the duties of his post.

While Nature was thus, as it were, asleep, and the watch on deck were
more than half in the same condition, there was one individual in the
ship whose faculties were in active play, whose "steam," as he himself
would have remarked, "was up." This was the worthy cook, Nikel Sling,
whose duties called him to his post at the galley-fire at an early hour
each day.

We have often thought that a cook's life must be one of constant
self-denial and exasperation of spirit. Besides the innumerable
anxieties in reference to such important matters as boiling over and
over-boiling, being done to a turn, or over-done, or singed or burned,
or capsized, he has the diu