h yes, missy, quite near," replied the Captain, also looking out of
the window. "There's Havant just in front. Don't you smell the sea?"

"Yes, Captain, yes, I do! Yes, I do!" cried Bob and Nellie together,
clapping their hands. "Isn't it nice! Isn't it jolly!"--Bob, it may be
taken for granted, using the latter term of approbation; Nellie adding
on her own private account another, "Ah, how nice!"

"Well, that's a matter of opinion," said Captain Dresser dryly, his
experiences of the fickle element not having, perhaps, always been
pleasant ones; but, before he could explain this, the train, with a
piercing shriek of warning from the steam-whistle of the engine, glided
into the station.

"Hav-'nt! Hav-'nt!" shouted the porters with lungs of brass and voices
of leather or gutta-percha. "Hav-'nt! Hav-'nt!"

"That's just what this boy will say when the guard asks him presently
for his ticket, or the money for his fare," said the Captain, with his
comical chuckle and merry twinkle of his bird-like eyes, pointing to
Dick as the ticket-collector banged open the door of the carriage as if
trying to wrench it off its hinges and held out his hand. "He haven't
got his ticket. Hav-n't, you see, my dears! Ha--ha--ha!"

CHAPTER THREE.

ROVER DISTINGUISHES HIMSELF.

The ticket-collector appeared puzzled for the moment, especially on
noticing a poor, ragged fellow like Dick travelling in a first-class
compartment "in company with gentlefolks," as he thought to himself;
but, at the instant this reflection passed through his mind, he
recognised the Captain as an old and regular passenger on the line,
besides being one from whom he had received many a `tip,' so he at once
touched his cap, responding with a grin of sympathy to the Captain's
cheery laugh, as if he thoroughly entered into the joke.

"Oh, haven't he, sir?" said he, the ungrammatical phrase dropping more
naturally from his rustic tongue; "then he'll have to get 'un sharp, or
pay the fare, sir."

"Never mind about that, my man, I'll pay for his ticket, for he's
travelling with me," replied the old sailor as he fumbled in his
pockets, shoving his hand first in one and then in the other; producing,
at last, a number of gold and silver coins, mixed up with coppers, a
bunch of keys, a clasp-knife, and his snuff-box, which somehow or other
he had put back in the wrong place. "How much is it?"

"Where from, sir?" inquired the man, reaching out his hand for