l?" cried Mr Burne.
"Look here, young man; don't you find fault with your own land. Stick
up for it through thick and thin."

"For all of it that is good, my lad," said the professor merrily, "but
don't uphold the bad."

"Bad, sir! There's precious little that's bad in London. If you want
to go a few hundred miles there, you can go at any time and get good
accommodation. Not be forced to ride in a market-boat with hard seats.
Bless me, they are making my back bad again."

"Oh, but, Mr Burne, look, look, the place here is lovely!"

"Oh, yes, lovely enough, but, as the fellow said, it isn't fit to live
in long; it's dangerous to be safe."

"What do you mean?"

"Earthquakes, sir. If you take a house in London, you know where you
are. If you take one here, as the fellow said, where are you? To-day
all right, to-morrow shaken down by an earthquake shock, or swallowed
up."

"There are risks everywhere," said the professor, who seemed to be
gradually throwing off his dreamy manner, and growing brighter and more
active, just as if he had been suffering from a disease of the mind as
Lawrence had of the body.

"Risks? Humph! yes, some; but by the time we've finished our trip,
you'll all be ready to say, There's no place like home."

"Granted," said the professor.

"Why, you're not tired of the journey already, Mr Burne?"

"Tired? No, my boy," cried the old man smiling. "I'm in a bad temper
to-day, that's all. This seat is terribly hard and--oh, I know what's
the matter. I'm horribly hungry."

He turned his head to see that Yussuf had finished and put away his
pipe, and was busy over one of the baskets of provisions, from which he
produced a cloth and knives and forks, with a bottle of wine and several
other necessaries, which his forethought had suggested; and in a short
time the travellers were enjoying a rough but most palatable _al fresco_
meal in the delicious evening, with the distant land glowing with light
of a glorious orange, and the deep blue sea dappled with orange and
gold.

"We have plenty of provisions, I suppose," said the professor.

"Yes, effendi, plenty," said Yussuf, who had been taking his portion
aside.

"Then pass what is left here to the skipper and his men."

Yussuf bowed gravely, and the men, who had been making an evening meal
of blackish bread and melons, were soon chattering away forward, eating
the remains of the meal and drinking a bottle of the Greek wine Lawrence
t