ss; unable to raise her
head from her pillow. Eleanor could do little for her. The evil was
remediless, and admitted of very small amelioration. But the weather
was very fine and the ship's progress excellent; and Eleanor spent
great part of her time on deck. All day, except when she was at the
side of Mrs. Amos, she was there. The sailors watched the figure in the
dark neat sea-dress and cloak and the little close straw bonnet with
chocolate ribbands; and every now and then made pretences to get near
and see how the face looked that was hidden under it. The report of the
first venturers was so favourable that Eleanor had an unconscious sort
of levee the next day or two; and then, the fresh sweet face that was
so like a flower was found to have more attractions when known than it
had before when unknown. There was not a hand on board but seized or
made opportunities every day and as often as he could to get near her;
if a chance offered and he could edge in a word and have a smile and
word in answer, that man went away esteemed both by himself and his
comrades a lucky fellow. Eleanor awoke presently to the sense of her
opportunities, though too genuinely humble to guess at the cause of
them; and she began to make every one tell for her work. Every sailor
on board soon knew what Eleanor valued more than all other things;
every one knew, "sure as guns," as he would have expressed it, that if
she had a chance of speaking to him, she would one way or another
contrive before it was ended to make him think of his duty and to
remember to whom it was owed; and yet--strange to say--there was not
one of them that for any such reason was willing to lose or to shun one
of those chances. "If all were like she"--was the comment of one Jack
tar; and the rest were precisely of his opinion. The captain himself
was no exception. He could not help frequently coming to Eleanor's
side, to break off her studies or her musings with some information or
some suggestion of his own and have a bit of a talk. His manners
mended. He grew thoroughly civil to her.

Meanwhile the vessel was speeding southwards. Fast, fast, every day
they lowered their latitude. Higher and higher rose the sun; the stars
that had been Eleanor's familiars ever since she had eyes to see them,
sank one by one below the northern horizon; and the beauty of the new,
strange, brilliant constellations of the southern sky began to tell her
in curious language of her approach to h