et sky! Thence we turned and coasted up the Adriatic, its
shores swimming in an atmosphere of amber, rose, and aquamarine; we
lay in wide land-locked harbours, we roamed through ancient and noble
cities, until at last one morning, as the sun rose royally behind us, we
rode into Venice down a path of gold. O, Venice is a fine city, wherein
a rat can wander at his ease and take his pleasure! Or, when weary of
wandering, can sit at the edge of the Grand Canal at night, feasting
with his friends, when the air is full of music and the sky full of
stars, and the lights flash and shimmer on the polished steel prows of
the swaying gondolas, packed so that you could walk across the canal on
them from side to side! And then the food--do you like shellfish? Well,
well, we won't linger over that now.'

He was silent for a time; and the Water Rat, silent too and enthralled,
floated on dream-canals and heard a phantom song pealing high between
vaporous grey wave-lapped walls.

'Southwards we sailed again at last,' continued the Sea Rat, 'coasting
down the Italian shore, till finally we made Palermo, and there I
quitted for a long, happy spell on shore. I never stick too long to one
ship; one gets narrow-minded and prejudiced. Besides, Sicily is one of
my happy hunting-grounds. I know everybody there, and their ways just
suit me. I spent many jolly weeks in the island, staying with friends up
country. When I grew restless again I took advantage of a ship that was
trading to Sardinia and Corsica; and very glad I was to feel the fresh
breeze and the sea-spray in my face once more.'

'But isn't it very hot and stuffy, down in the--hold, I think you call
it?' asked the Water Rat.

The seafarer looked at him with the suspicion go a wink. 'I'm an old
hand,' he remarked with much simplicity. 'The captain's cabin's good
enough for me.'

'It's a hard life, by all accounts,' murmured the Rat, sunk in deep
thought.

'For the crew it is,' replied the seafarer gravely, again with the ghost
of a wink.

'From Corsica,' he went on, 'I made use of a ship that was taking wine
to the mainland. We made Alassio in the evening, lay to, hauled up our
wine-casks, and hove them overboard, tied one to the other by a long
line. Then the crew took to the boats and rowed shorewards, singing as
they went, and drawing after them the long bobbing procession of casks,
like a mile of porpoises. On the sands they had horses waiting, which
dragged the casks up