is college life. If he is an apt
student, he then obtains a certificate of qualification from a board
of commissioners by whom he has been rigidly examined.

"The pilot-boats themselves are exposed to great dangers in foggy
weather. A calm comes on, and they cannot move. In this situation,
they are liable to be struck by one of the great iron vessels or ocean
steamers. During the last twenty-five years, some thirty pilot-boats
have been lost on this coast."

[Illustration: PILOT-BOAT.]

The night was beautiful, calm, cool, starry. In the morning, the sun
rose red from the sea. Land had disappeared. The boys all met on the
deck, in fine health and spirits.

Towards evening, the sea grew rough, and there were premonitions of
sea-sickness among the passengers. Tommy Toby, in an amusing letter
which he wrote to his parents, gave a stereoscopic pen-picture of the
condition of our travellers at this period of the voyage. He
afterwards added a characteristic postscript. We give Tommy's letter
and postscript entire:--

My Dear Parents:

If I can only get safely back to Boston, I will never
start on a voyage again.

I knew it would be so. I have been seasick.

The first night and day we had very pleasant weather and
a light sea.

On the evening of the second day, I was on deck with
the boys.

All at once the boat gave a great lurch. Then another.
Then another.

"We are getting into rough water," said Master Lewis.

Wyllys Wynn, who is a poet, was repeating some beautiful
rhymes, when suddenly he grew white in the face, and
said, "And so it goes on for several lines." He meant
the poetry. Then he began to wander to and fro in search
of the cabin and his state-room.

Frank Gray began to tell a story, but stopped short, and
said, "The rest of it is like unto _that_!" He meant the
rest of the story. Then he went to the cabin, "making
very crooked steerage," one of the deck-hands said.

Ernest Wynn followed him, in the same strange gait.

"The Zigzag Club," said the deck-hand. He was a very
sarcastic man.

The ship gave another dreadful lurch, and I began to
feel very strange.

I went to my state-room. I felt worse on the way.

The ship seemed to have lost all her steadiness.

I cannot describe the night that followed. The ship
creaked, and seemed just about to roll over after every
lurc