r cruise. And the thing really is a delectable
craft--stout, with a square-shouldered bow, and a high, perky nose of
brass, standing up in the air as one sees the beak of a duck sometimes,
half-sunk among its feathers and pointing upward. "Waterspin" (which
means "water-spider") is the creature's name, and she is a brilliant
emerald, lined and painted round her windows with an equally brilliant
scarlet. This bold scheme of color would be no less than shocking on the
Thames; but, sitting in that olive-green canal, in a retired part of
Rotterdam, "Waterspin" looked like a pleasing Dutch caricature of Noah's
Ark.

Inside we found her equally desirable, with four little boxes of
sleeping-rooms, yellow painted floors, and bunks curtained with
hand-embroidered dimity, stiff as a frozen crust of snow; a studio, with
a few charming bits of old painted Dutch furniture to redeem it from
bareness, and a kitchen which roused all Phil's domestic instincts.

"Oh, the darling blue and white china, and brass things, and those
adorable pewter pots!" she cried. "I love this boat. I could be quite
happy living on her all the rest of my life."

"So you shall! I mean, while she is mine you must consider yourselves
as much at home on her as on your own boat," stammered Mr. Starr.
"Or, if you'd rather take up your quarters on the barge----"

"No, no. Nell and I will live on 'Lorelei'; but I do think, if you'll
let me, I'll come sometimes and cook things in that heavenly kitchen."

"Let you? Whatever you make shall be preserved in amber."

"Wouldn't it be better to eat it?" asked Phil.

"Can you cook? I should as soon expect to see a Burne-Jones lady run
down the Golden Stair into a kitchen----"

"I can make delicious toast and tea-cakes and salad dressing--can't I,
Nell?--and lots of other things."

"Pluperfect. I only wish I could. I shan't trouble your kitchen, Mr.
Starr."

"But you can sing so beautifully, dear, and sketch, too; and your
stories----"

"Don't dare speak of them!" I glared; and poor Phil, unselfishly anxious
to show off my accomplishments to Lady MacNairne's nephew, was silent
and abashed. I hoped that Mr. Starr hadn't heard.

He was delighted with our approval of the barge, and enlarged upon the
good times before us. No one could know Holland properly without seeing
her from the waterways, he said, and we would know her by-and-by as few
foreigners did. She could not hide a secret from us that was worth
findin