g their
crews, box and sentry were carried on board one of their boats and
transported to Gosport, and then placed in an upright position facing
the water. When the relief came to the spot where the sentry was
originally stationed, what was their astonishment and alarm to find
neither sentry nor box! The captain of the guard reported the
circumstance to the fort-major. "The enemy," he averred, "must be at
hand."

The garrison was aroused, the drawbridges were hauled up. Daylight
revealed the box and the position of the sentry, who protested that,
although as sober as a judge, he had no idea how he had been conveyed
across the harbour.

Numerous "land-sharks" used to be in waiting to tempt those who were
generally too ready to be tempted into scenes of debauchery and vice.
This state of things continued until a few years ago, when it was put
into the heart of a noble lady--Miss Robinson--to found an institute for
soldiers and sailors. There they may find a home when coming on shore,
and be warned of the dangers awaiting them. After great exertion, and
travelling about England to obtain funds, she raised about thirteen
thousand pounds, and succeeded in purchasing the old Fountain Hotel, in
the High Street, which, greatly enlarged, was opened in 1874 as a
Soldiers' and Sailors' Institute, by General Sir James Hope Grant.

Dear me, I shall fill up my journal with the yarns we heard at
Portsmouth, and have no room for our adventures, if I write on at this
rate. After our devotions, we turned in, and were lulled to sleep, as
we were last night, by the ripple of the water against the sides of the
yacht.

CHAPTER TWO.

IN THE SOLENT.

Next morning, soon after breakfast, we went on shore to pay a visit to
the dockyard. On entering, papa was desired to put down his name; and
the man seeing that he was a captain in the navy, we were allowed to go
on without a policeman in attendance, and nearly lost ourselves among
the storehouses and docks. As we walked past the lines of lofty sheds,
we heard from all directions the ringing clank of iron, instead of, as
in days of yore, the dull thud of the shipwright's mallet, and saw the
ground under each shed strewed with ribs and sheets of iron ready to be
fixed to the vast skeletons within. Papa could not help sighing, and
saying that he wished "the days of honest sailing ships could come back
again." However, he directly afterwards observed, "I should be sorry to
get