by daylight. The air
was deliciously balmy and soft, the sea as smooth as glass. The moon was
nearly full, and the whole line of the shore could be distinctly seen.
Boats flitted about between the vessels and the strand; fishing-boats,
with their sails hanging motionless, slowly made their way in by the aid
of oars. The sounds of distant music in the city came across the water.

There was no singing or dancing on board the _Flying Scud_ that evening.
All were content to sit quiet and enjoy the scene, and such conversation
as there was was carried on in low tones, as if they were under a spell
which they feared to break. The next morning all went ashore soon after
breakfast; but upon their assembling at dinner it was found that the
general impression was one of disappointment. It was a fine city, but
not so fine as it looked from the water. Except the main thoroughfares
the streets were narrow, and, as the ladies declared, dirty. The young
people, however, were not so critical; they had been delighted with the
stir and movement, the bright costumes, the variety of race and colour,
and the novelty of everything they saw.

"The negroes amuse me most," Marion said. "They seem to be always
laughing. I never saw such merry people."

"They are like children," her father said. "The slightest thing causes
them amusement. It is one of the signs of a low type of intellect when
people are given to laugh at trifles."

"Then the natives ought to be very intelligent," Marion said, "for as a
whole they appeared to me to be a serious race. Of course I saw many of
them laughing and chattering, but most of them are very quiet in manner.
The old people seem to be wrinkled in a wonderful way. I never saw
English people so wrinkled."

"All southern races show age in that way," Mr. Atherton said. "You see
marvellous old men and women in Spain and Italy. People who, as far as
looks go, might be a hundred and fifty--little dried-up specimens of
humanity, with faces more like those of monkeys than men."

"Are the negroes slaves, Mr. Atherton? They still have slavery in
Brazil, do they not? They certainly are not at all according to my idea
of slaves."

"The estates are mostly worked by negro slaves," Mr. Atherton said, "and
no doubt many of those you saw to-day are also slaves. Household slavery
is seldom severe, and I believe the Brazilians are generally kind
masters. But probably the greater portion of the negroes you saw are
free. The