e way, it does seem something like a coincidence, does it
not--that our friend, Captain Smitherton, has been absent exactly a year
also, a year to-day?"

_Smitherton._ "Yes! just one year to a fraction. You will remember, Mr.
Rumgudgeon, that I called with Captain Pratt on this very day last year,
to pay my parting respects."

_Uncle._ "Yes, yes, yes--I remember it very well--very queer indeed!
Both of you gone just one year. A very strange coincidence indeed! Just
what Doctor Dubble L. Dee would denominate an extraordinary concurrence
of events. Doctor Dub--"

_Kate_ (_interrupting_). "To be sure papa, it _is_ something strange;
but then Captain Pratt and Captain Smitherton didn't go altogether the
same route, and that makes a difference you know."

_Uncle._ "I don't know any such thing, you hussy! How should I? I think
it only makes the matter more remarkable. Doctor Dubble L. Dee--"

_Kate._ "Why, papa, Captain Pratt went round Cape Horn, and Captain
Smitherton doubled the Cape of Good Hope."

_Uncle._ "Precisely! the one went east and the other went west, you
jade, and they have both gone quite round the world. By the bye, Doctor
Dub--"

_Myself_ (_hurriedly_). "Captain Pratt, you must come and spend the
evening with us to-morrow--you and Smitherton--you can tell us all about
your voyage, and we'll have a game of whist, and--"

_Pratt._ "Whist, my dear fellow--you forget. To-morrow will be Sunday.
Some other evening--"

_Kate._ "Oh, no, fie!--Robert's not _quite_ so bad as that. _To-day's_
Sunday."

_Uncle._ "To be sure--to be sure."

_Pratt._ "I beg both your pardons--but I can't be so much mistaken. I
know to-morrow's Sunday, because--"

_Smitherton_ (_much surprised_). "What _are_ you all thinking about?
Wasn't _yesterday_ Sunday, I should like to know?"

_All._ "Yesterday, indeed! you _are_ out!"

_Uncle._ "To-day's Sunday, I say--don't I know?"

_Pratt._ "Oh, no!--to-morrow's Sunday."

_Smitherton._ "You are _all_ mad--every one of you. I am as positive
that yesterday was Sunday as I am that I sit upon this chair."

_Kate_ (_jumping up eagerly_). "I see it--I see it all. Papa, this is a
judgment upon you, about--about you know what. Let me alone, and I'll
explain it all in a minute. It's a very simple thing, indeed. Captain
Smitherton says that yesterday was Sunday: so it was; he is right.
Cousin Bobby, and papa and I, say that to-day is Sunday: so it is, we
are right. Captain Pratt mainta