e conceit of him!" laughed his uncle. "Stick it out, indeed!
Why, you don't know what it means, you healthy young rascal. You have
the stomach of a goat!"

To divert attention, possibly, Dwight suddenly turned to the girls, and
inspected them with apparent curiosity.

"You seem to be decorated, this afternoon," he remarked in a
non-committal tone, "and got on your pink and blue ribbons, I declare!"

His gaze rested on the sea-biscuit, and he lowered his eyelids to hide
the laugh behind them.

"You didn't know we had decorations on this ship?" asked Hope
teasingly. "Only a few get them. They are for good conduct under
trying conditions. We have been ill, but not disagreeably ill.
There's a difference."

The gentlemen were looking at the painted squares, now, and her father
said, "What's that nonsense, my dear? What are they, anyhow?"

"Just something the stormy petrels dropped through our porthole," said
Faith, gravely taking up the tale. "Aren't they pretty?"

"H'm! Quite so." Mr. Lawrence was also indulging in a long look.
"Did a merman paint them for you? And what sea-king got up that
poetry? It seems well selected, if not entirely original." He glanced
at his nephew quizzically, and added, "I suppose the other name of that
Freedom who shrieked was Dwight, wasn't it? Pretty well, sir, pretty
well! I recognize the work. Your style is original, Mr. Artist
Vanderhoff."

"And didn't you help him one bit, Mr. Lawrence?" asked Faith.

"Did not even know of it, Miss Hosmer."

"Then I call it a mighty smart performance!" cried Hope in a tone of
finality which brought a hearty laugh from the group.

"Clever enough!" decided the captain, as he spelled out the twisted
lines, and chuckled over them. "You're quite an artist, young man. I
remember, a few years back, I had a whole crew of the long-haired
profession aboard, and a jolly, turbulent set they were. They
decorated the ship from stem to gudgeon in all sorts of unexpected
places, and almost disorganized my Lascars, snatching them off duty to
pose as models. I had to threaten to driven 'em below at the rope's
end, and batten down the hatches, to bring them to reason. But they
made fun for us the whole voyage, and I was sorry to see the last of
them at Gibraltar."

The steamer was now in the broad Bay of Biscay, which washes the bold
shores of France and Spain, and the water had that compact hue of dark
azure, with occasional greenish lights