touch, and make them strong enough to bear her own
weight and all other strains that come upon them; while the sailor, as
Rollo and Jane observed on this occasion, was obliged in his fastenings
to wind his ropes round and round, and tie them into complicated knots,
and then secure the ends with "spun yarn."

While Rollo and Jane were watching the sailors, they saw them unfurl one
after another of the sails, and spread them to the wind; for the wind
was now fair, and it was fresh enough to assist the engines considerably
in propelling the ship through the water. Still, as the ship was going
the same way with the wind, the breeze was scarcely felt upon the deck.
The air was mild and balmy, and the surface of the sea was comparatively
smooth, so that the voyage was beginning very prosperously. Rollo looked
all around the horizon, but he could see no land in any direction. There
was not even a ship in sight; nothing but one wide and boundless waste
of waters.

"I should think that there would be some other ships going to England
to-day," he said, "besides ours."

Jane did not know what to think on such a subject, and so she did not
reply.

"Let us watch for whales," said Rollo. "Perhaps we shall see a whale.
You watch the water all along on that side, and I will on this side; and
if you see any whale spout, tell me."

So they both kept watch for some time, but neither of them saw any
spouting. Jane gave one alarm, having seen some large, black-looking
monsters rise to the surface not far from them on one side of the ship.
She called out eagerly to Rollo to look. He did so, but he said that
they were not whales; they were porpoises. He had seen porpoises often
before, in bays and harbors.

Just then the bell near the helmsman's window struck again, though in a
manner a little different from before; for after the two pairs of
strokes which had been heard before there came a single stroke, making
five in all, thus:--

Ding--ding! Ding--ding! Ding.

Immediately afterward the sound was repeated in the forward part of the
ship, as it had been before.

Ding--ding! Ding--ding! Ding,

"I wonder what that means," said Rollo.

Just then an officer of the ship, in his walk up and down the deck,
passed near to where Rollo was sitting, and Rollo instinctively
determined to ask him.

"Will you please tell me, sir, what that striking means?"

"It's five bells," said the man; and so walked on.

[Illustration]

CHA