ll next holidays, I promise to take you
all to Kingshaven, and you shall sail your ship as much as you like from
the little jetty or the rocks. It is a nice safe place with lovely
sands--if the sea ever can be said to be _safe_."

Harry listened in silent amazement to these words. The utter crushing of
his hopes as to sailor-life was for the moment completely forgotten in
the near and enchanting prospect held out to him in its place. But he
was a kind-hearted, affectionate boy, and even in this hour of excitement
he did not forget his friend.

"But Walter, mamma?" he cried, as his mother was leaving the room,--"how
can I sail it without Walter?"

"Well, you can ask Walter to come with us. I daresay he will be very
glad," said his mother, calling back from the staircase, for she was in a
hurry about some household affair.

Harry clapped his hands, and ran to tell Walter, who was equally
overjoyed at the idea of going to Kingshaven with Harry. So they set to
work and counted the weeks and days that must elapse until the holidays
came round, and then they once more thoroughly overhauled the "good ship
_Rover_" to see if it was water-tight and ready for its first voyage.

It would be literally its first voyage. Harry and Walter had tried the
green tub that belonged to the nursery, but in vain. It was not nearly
long enough. Cook would not let them try the fixed tubs in the laundry,
and it was very doubtful if even they would have held the _Rover_.

The bath would have done so easily, and longing eyes had often been fixed
on it with that idea. But Mrs. Leslie was inexorable--no such dabbling
among water, either hot or cold, was to be permitted; so the _Rover_
still stuck high and dry in the nursery window.

II. THE SEA! THE SEA!

The midsummer holidays at last came round, and Mrs. Leslie, who had been
busy packing up and arranging things for some weeks, now resolved to shut
up the house for a whole month and, with the family, set off for
Kingshaven.

It was a long way off--some thirty or forty miles--so it was quite like
an adventure to Harry Leslie and his little brothers and sisters, and
scarcely less so to Walter Hammond, who was to accompany them. Dr.
Hammond could not leave home on account of his numerous patients; and had
it not been for this fine chance, Walter would have had only a few days
in the country now and then. He was a good-tempered, sensible boy, and a
pleasant guest in any ho