our trip--at its very
beginning."

"Dear lady; it won't mean that. Even if it had to do it would be all
right--for me, at least. I should have some beautiful things to
remember always."

Then the cheerfulest of whistling was heard; Cap'n Jack's warning that
he was coming down the stairs and that any feminines in night attire
might take warning and flee.

But nobody fled, and Dorothy tried to turn on the electric light which
had been one of the fine features of this palatial house-boat. No
radiance followed, and, watching from the doorway, Cap'n Jack
triumphantly exclaimed:

"Didn't I know it? What's them new-fangled notions wuth in a case o'
need? Taller's the stuff, or good, reli'ble whale-ile. Well, ship's
comp'ny, how'd ye like it? Warn't that the purtiest leetle blow 't
ever you see? Didn't I warn ye 'twas comin'? Yet ye went an' allowed I
warn't no real captain and couldn't run a boat like this easy as
George Washin'ton! Now you're wiser. That there leetle gale has larnt
ye all somethin'. And 'nough said. Give old Jack a couple o' sail or
so an' a man to climb the riggin' an' he'll beat all the steam engines
ever was hatched. Oh! I'm just feelin' prime. That bit o' wind has
blowed all the land-fog out o' my head an' left it clear as glass.

"'A life on the ocean wave,
A home on the rolling de-e-ep.'"

The old man's rich voice trailed off toward the tender--or where the
tender should have been--while a clear and boyish one took up the
ditty from the roof above, with:

"'Where the scattered waters rave
And the wi-i-inds their vigils ke-e-ep!'"

"Melvin! Jim! Gerald! Are you all up there? Come down, come down!"

"Yes, Captain Dolly! Coming! Here!" shouted Melvin, rattling down the
crooked stair, while Jim's voice responded: "Present!" and Gerald
finished with a merry: "Accounted for!"

Then Aurora ran to meet her brother and to kiss him with an unexpected
affection. To his credit it was that he gently returned her caress,
but laughed at her statement that she had feared he was drowned.

"Not a bit of it! But this doesn't look much like mourning, if you
did!" he jested, pointing at the white silk frock she had again put
on.

"Well, it was the first one I got hold of. That's why. But,
tell--tell--how came you up there?"

"Yes, everything, tell everything!" begged Dorothy, fairly dancing
about them in her eagerness.

"Melvin--Melvin did it!" said Jim. "We might all be at the