entleman seated opposite them.

"Oh, Uncle Tom, how can you stay down in this stuffy cabin? There is a
sunset on the water that is just screaming out to be looked at. As for
that work, you have ten days to attend to those tiresome telegrams and
letters."

"Nonsense, Pierce, I have no idea of waiting ten days for this important
business. You forget the wireless," answered the uncle, looking fondly
at the enthusiastic young fellow, who was so like him except for the
gray hair that it was almost ludicrous.

"Oh, goodness gracious me, where is your holiday to be, with you tied to
your Mother Country with a stringless apron? That is what that old
wireless telegraphy reminds me of," laughed the young man, showing all
his perfect teeth. "Well, I've got your chair and steamer rug all ready
for you and all you have to do is come sit in it."

"Now, Pierce, don't wait on me. Part of having a holiday is to forget
how old I am. When I get these telegrams off, I am going to show you how
skittish I can be and forget all about business. I fancy you will have
to hold me back in my race for a good time. This limerick is to be my
motto:

"Said this long-legged daddy of Troy,
'Although I'm no longer a boy,
I bet I can show
You chaps how to go.'
Which he did to his own savage joy."

Mrs. Brown and Molly could not help overhearing this conversation and at
the above limerick they laughed outright. The young man called Pierce
looked at them with a friendly glance and the uncle smiled another of
his rare smiles, which made the ladies from Kentucky feel that the ocean
was not going to be such a terribly lonesome place after all. They
gathered up their belongings and made their way on deck to view the
sunset that was "screaming to be looked at."

"It really is worth seeing, isn't it, Mother? Somehow, though, I never
do like to be made to look at a sunset. The persons who insist on your
doing it always seem to have a kind of proprietary air. Now that young
man wanted to bulldoze his uncle into coming when--when----" Molly
stopped suddenly, realizing that the two men in great-coats, with the
collars turned up to their ears, who had taken their places at the
railing next to her mother, were no other than the two in question.

"You are perfectly right, madam," said the elder, raising his hat. "This
nephew of mine is always doing it. Now I should much rather come on deck
when the sun is down and see the after-glow. The c