hen you
have to do with the bad ones, keep them at a distance; and when you have
to do with the good and repentant, just shut your eyes to the past and
open them as wide as you can to the future. Sure, Nic, I'm the
governor's lady with a title, and everybody's glad to be my friend,
yourself included, my boy; but how do I know what I might have been if I
hadn't been tenderly cared for when I was young? You'll like some of
the transported people, Nic, my boy. I've got some out there whom I
look upon as friends, and just because I see that they've put the past
behind, and are doing what these sailor lads do here, keeping a bright
look-out ahead. Yes, Nic, they're looking to the future, and so am I
and you. What a place this world would be if we hadn't a future before
us every one! There, you will not fret nor worry yourself about any
dangers we are likely to meet with from the convicts now."

"Oh no," said Nic eagerly; "you have done me no end of good, Lady
O'Hara. But--"

"Well, but what, boy? Out with it, and don't hesitate."

"Are they ever likely to rise against us over there, or here aboard
ship?"

"Sure, I don't know, Nic," said Lady O'Hara coolly. "Very likely, my
boy. They are always thinking about it, I know."

"But if they do?"

"Well, we shall just have to rise too, and teach them manners. We've
got right on our side, and they haven't; so we are sure to win."

"But you don't seem at all alarmed, in spite of all that I have said."

"Sure, and why should I be, Nic, or you either? They may rise, and a
hole may burst out in the bottom of the ship, and we may run upon a
rock, and there may be a storm, and there are plenty of other maybe's,
Nic. But let them be, my dear boy. You and I have got our duty to do,
and let's do it, and while we're doing that, leave all the rest. Nic,
boy, faith's a grand thing. I'm full of it, and ye're just a little
wanting; so get it as fast as ye can; it's a fine thing in the making of
a true man."

CHAPTER SIX.

ON THE OTHER SIDE.

The voyage was long but uneventful. They sailed on, in fine weather,
down and down into hot inter-tropical sunshine, and reached the Cape,
took in fresh stores, and then sailed on south, so as to get into the
region where the winds are chill, but blow strongly in the right
direction, carrying the big ship onward in its course.

Week succeeded week in slow monotony, broken by a little rough weather,
but that was all. The s