ing in the
tropics?"

"Yes, Tom; this is the tropics."

"Well, they're hot tropics, and no mistake--out-and-out hot uns. It
won't get any warmer than this, will it?"

"Warmer, my lad?" said one of the sailors; "why, this is nothing to what
it is sometimes. I've known it so hot that the fellows have been
half-roasted, and when the skipper's piped all hands to bathe in a
lugsail overboard, to keep away the sharks, you've heard the lads sizzle
as they jumped into the water."

"They got quite red-hot, then?" said Tom quietly.

"Well, hardly red-hot, though they were mostly very red--more brown-hot,
I should say."

"Thanky," said Tom. "Much obliged;" and the sailor went away chuckling.

"He thinks I believe him, Mas'r Harry," said Tom quietly; "but I'm not
quite such a fool as all that."

"Oh! never mind their nonsense, Tom," I said; "there are too many
beautiful things to see, for us to pay heed to all that these fellows
say."

"Ah! you're about right there, Mas'r Harry," said Tom; "but somehow I am
a bit disappointed."

"Why?" I asked.

"At not getting ashore. Only think of it, Mas'r Harry! having a gun
apiece, and going wandering up the country somewhere, seeing all there
is in one of these islands."

"Have patience, Tom," I replied; "and I daresay you'll get as much
adventure as you'll care to have."

I did not know how true a prophet I was then. In fact, perhaps if I
could have foreseen all we should have to go through, I might have
shrunk back from my undertaking.

Farther and farther every day now we went on and on, putting in at first
one island port and then another, but never having time to do more than
just go ashore. A visit up the country was quite out of the question.

"It's a rum un, Mas'r Harry," said Tom, on our first landing; and his
broad countrified face expanded into a grin as he stopped opposite a
stout old negro woman who was selling fruit. No sooner did she see Tom
displaying his white teeth than she showed hers--two long rows like
ivory--and these two stood smiling one at the other till Tom recovered
himself, and invested sixpence in plantains and oranges.

"They're black enough out here, and no mistake, Mas'r Harry," said Tom;
"and oh, I say, just you taste these--they're splendid."

The waving cocoa palms and the beautiful flowers that we saw brought
into the bright little market made me feel, like Tom, that I should like
to go farther afield; but I comforted myself w