various little trips he and Nellie had taken; aye, and in the
pleasurable occupation of collecting all those strange wonders of the
shore, with which they had been so recently made familiar.

But, never had he enjoyed himself to the extent he did now!

There was nothing, on his once having tasted the joy of sailing, that
could compare with it for a moment in his mind; and, if his own tastes
had been consulted, he would have been content to have spent morning,
noon, and night on board the _Zephyr_.

It was the same with Dick; and, under the Captain's able tuition, both
the boys soon acquired sufficient knowledge of tacking and wearing,
sailing close-hauled and going free with the helm amidships, besides
other nice points of seamanship, as to be able almost to handle the
cutter as well as their instructor.

Nellie, naturally, could not enter so fully into these details as Bob
and Dick; but, still, she took quite as much pleasure as they did in
skimming over the undulating surface of the water and hearing the
gurgling ripple made by the boat's keel.

She felt a little alarm sometimes, perhaps, when, with her mainsail
sharply braced up, the _Zephyr_ would heel over to leeward, burying her
gunwale in the foam ploughed up by her keen-edged bow, as it raced past,
boiling and eddying, astern.

On one occasion the Captain took them out trawling between the Nab and
Warner light-ships; where a bank of sand stretches out to sea, forming
the favourite fishing-ground of the Portsmouth watermen hailing from
Point and the Camber at the mouth of the harbour.

"What is trawling?" asked Master Bob, of course, when the matter was
mooted by the owner of the cutter.

"What is trawling, eh?" repeated the old sailor, humming and cogitating
for a minute or so. "Let me see; ah, yes, you let down a trawl and
catch your fish in it, instead of using a line or drag-net."

"Sure, Captain," cried Mrs Gilmour, laughing at this, "that's as good
as your definition of steam the other day! You'll have Bob asking you
now what is a trawl, the same as I've got to do; please tell us, won't
you?"

"Sure and I will," returned he, imitating her accent and making her
brother and herself laugh, Mrs Strong only smiling faintly, as she had
a marked dislike to any allusion to the Irish brogue. "The trawl,
ma'am, is a very simple contrivance when it is understood; and, by your
leave, I'll try and make it plain to you. It consists of an ordinary
net, l