n't know that she is in
her best trim. In the next place we must get the crew accustomed to
each other and to the craft. I bought her as a cruiser rather than
a racer, and don't want to have her full of men, as are most of the
racers. It is a heavy expense, and fewer hands accustomed to work
well together do just as much work, and more smartly than a crowd.
We found, when we sailed round the islands with the Royal Victoria
race, that, considering we went under reduced canvas, we held our
own very fairly; and I have no doubt that when we get all our light
canvas up, the Osprey will give a good account of herself. Our gear
is scarcely stretched yet.

"No; I will wait until next season, and then we will make a bold
bid for a Queen's Cup."

Frank Mallett reached the platform at Southampton a few minutes
before the train came in. The party were on the lookout for him,
and alighted in the highest spirits.

"Now, ladies," he said, "the first thing is to point out the
luggage. My man here will get it all together, and stand guard over
it till two others arrive to get it on board. They will be here in
a few minutes. In fact, they ought to be here now."

He looked on with something like dismay while the boxes were picked
out and piled together.

"My dear Lady Greendale," he said, "I am afraid you must all have
very vague ideas as to the amount of accommodation in a 120-ton
yacht. She is not a Cunarder or a P and O. Why, two or three of
those trunks would absolutely fill one of her cabins."

"You did not expect, Major Mallett," Bertha said demurely, "that we
were coming for a month's cruise with only handbags; especially
after telling us that very likely we might not get a chance of
getting any washing done all that time."

"Well, I dare say we shall stow them away somewhere. Now, as you
have got them all together, we will go down to the boat.

"Now, lads, you had better get a hand cart, and get these things on
board as soon as you can."

"Which is the Osprey?" Amy Sinclair asked Bertha, as they took
their places in the boat.

Bertha looked with a rather puzzled face at the fleet of yachts.

"That is," she said, confidently, after a moment's hesitation,
pointing to one towards which the boat was at the moment heading.

Frank Mallett laughed.

"Really I should have thought, Miss Greendale, that, although
making every allowance for feminine vagueness as to boats, you
would have known the yacht you christened a mont