e me in two hours to take the bearings--"

"I give it, Mr. Becker."

The three Greenlanders then descended into the hold, for tropical
nights are as chilly as the days are hot, and Becker, rolling himself
up in a sail, lay on deck.

In less than five minutes they were all fast asleep, and Willis paced
the deck, his arms crossed, and mechanically gazing upon a star that
was mirrored in the water.

"Several years to come to us, and that at the rate of seventy thousand
leagues a second--that is _a little_ too much."

Then he went to the rudder, his head leaning upon his breast, and
glancing now and then with distracted eye at the course of the boat,
buried in a world of thought, sad and confused, doubtless beholding in
succession visions of the _Nelson_, of Susan, and of Scotland.

FOOTNOTES:

[A] "Search after Truth," book ix.

[B] The twilight is entirely owing to this.

CHAPTER IV.

A LANDSCAPE--SAD HOUSES AND SMILING HOUSES--POLITENESS IN CHINA--EIGHT
SOUPS AT DESSERT--WIND MERCHANTS--ANOTHER IDEA OF THE PILOT'S--SUSAN,
VICE SOPHIA.

Towards five o'clock next morning everything about Rockhouse was
beginning to assume life and motion--within, all its inhabitants were
already astir--without, little remained of the recent storm and
inundation except that refreshing coolness, which, conjointly with the
purified air, infuses fresh vigor, not only into men, but also into
every living thing. The citrous, the aloes, and the Spanish jasmines
perfumed the landscape. The flexible palms, the tall bananas, with
their unbrageous canopy, the broad, pendant-leaved mangoes, and all
the rank but luxuriant vegetation that clothed the land to the water's
edge, waved majestically under the gentle breeze that blew from the
sea. The Jackal River unfolded its silvery band through the roses,
bamboos, and cactii that lined its banks. The sun--for that luminary
plays an important part in all Nature's festivals--darted its rays on
the soil still charged with vapor. Diamond drops sparkled in the cups
of the flowers and on the points of the leaves. In the distance,
pines, cedars, and richly-laden cocoa-nut trees filled up the
background with their dark foliage. The swans displayed their
brilliant plumage on the lake, the boughs of the trees were alive with
parroquets and other winged creatures of the tropics. Add to the
charms of this scene, Mrs. Becker returning from the prairie with a
jar of warm, frothy milk--Mrs. Wolston