long that rocky coast. It also gave her time
to--but no matter.

"O how very much I should like to have a little boat," said Minnie, with
enthusiasm, "and spend a long day rowing in and out among these wild
rocks, and exploring the caves! Wouldn't it be delightful, Ruby?"

Ruby admitted that it would, and added, "You shall have such a day,
Minnie, if we live long."

"Have you ever been in the _Forbidden Cave_?" enquired Minnie.

"I'll warrant you he has," cried the captain, who overheard the
question; "you may be sure that wherever Ruby is forbidden to go, there
he'll be sure to go!"

"Ay, is he so self-willed?" asked the lieutenant, with a smile, and a
glance at Minnie.

"A mule; a positive mule," said the captain.

"Come, uncle, you know that I don't deserve such a character, and it's
too bad to give it to me to-day. Did I not agree to come on this
excursion at once, when you asked me?"

"Ay, but you wouldn't if I had _ordered_ you," returned the captain.

"I rather think he would," observed the lieutenant, with another smile,
and another glance at Minnie.

Both smiles and glances were observed and noticed by Ruby, whose heart
felt another pang shoot through it; but this, like the former, subsided
when the lieutenant again addressed the captain, and devoted himself to
him so exclusively, that Ruby began to feel a touch of indignation at
his want of appreciation of _such_ a girl as Minnie.

"He's a stupid ass," thought Ruby to himself, and then, turning to
Minnie, directed her attention to a curious natural arch on the cliffs,
and sought to forget all the rest of the world.

In this effort he was successful, and had gradually worked himself into
the firm belief that the world was paradise, and that he and Minnie were
its sole occupants--a second edition, as it were, of Adam and Eve--when
the lieutenant rudely dispelled the sweet dream by saying sharply to the
man at the bow-oar--

"Is that the boat, Baker? You ought to know it pretty well."

"I think it is, sir," answered the man, resting on his oar a moment, and
glancing over his shoulder; "but I can't be sure at this distance."

"Well, pull easy," said the lieutenant; "you see, it won't do to scare
them, Captain Ogilvy, and they'll think we're a pleasure party when they
see a woman in the boat."

Ruby thought they would not be far wrong in supposing them a pleasure
party. He objected, mentally, however, to Minnie being styled a
"woman"--not t