tion him when you named your guests."

"No, Auntie, I didn't forget. I kept him as a delightful surprise. I
knew you'd feel so much safer with a real captain in charge."

"Humph! Who told you he was a captain, or had ever been afloat?"

"Why--he did;" answered the girl, under her breath. "I--I met him on a
car. He used to own a boat. He brought oysters to the city. I think it
was a--a bugeye, some such name. Auntie, don't you like him? I'm so
sorry! because you said, you remember, that I might choose all to go
and to have a real captain who'll work for nothing but his
'grub'--that's food, he says----"

"That will do. For the present I won't turn him off, but I think his
management of the Water Lily will be brief. On a quiet craft--Don't
look so disappointed. I shall not hurt your skipper's feelings though
I'll put up with no nonsense."

At that moment the old man had decided to go aboard and leading the
way with a gallant flourish of crutches, guided them into the cabin,
or saloon, and made his little speech.

"Ladies and gents, mostly ladies, welcome to my new ship--the Water
Lily. Bein' old an' seasoned in the knowledge of navigation I'll do my
duty to the death. Anybody wishin' to consult me will find me on the
bridge."

With a wave of his cap the queer old fellow stumped away to the
crooked stairway, which he climbed by means of the baluster instead of
the steps, his crutches thump-thumping along behind him.

By "bridge" he meant the forward point of the upper deck, or roof of
the cabin, and there he proceeded to rig up a sort of "house" with
pieces of the awning in which there had been inserted panes of glass.

But the effect of his address was to put all these strangers at ease,
for none could help laughing at his happy pomposity, and after people
laugh together once stiffness disappears.

Gerald Blank promptly followed Melvin Cook to Jim's little engine-room
on the tender, and the colored folks as promptly followed him. Their
own bunks were to be on the small boat and Chloe was anxious to see
what they were like.

Then Mrs. Bruce roused from her silence and asked Aunt Betty about the
provisions that had been brought on board and where she might find
them. She had been asked to join the party as housekeeper, really for
Mabel's sake, from whom she couldn't be separated now, and because
Dorothy had argued:

"That dear woman loves to cook better than anything else. She always
did. Now she hasn't anybod