of them came down to the weather-beaten _Spray_ and
sailed round her at Shelcote, where she took a berth for a few days.
At Sydney I was at once among friends. The _Spray_ remained at the
various watering-places in the great port for several weeks, and was
visited by many agreeable people, frequently by officers of H.M.S.
_Orlando_ and their friends. Captain Fisher, the commander, with a
party of young ladies from the city and gentlemen belonging to his
ship, came one day to pay me a visit in the midst of a deluge of rain.
I never saw it rain harder even in Australia. But they were out for
fun, and rain could not dampen their feelings, however hard it
poured. But, as ill luck would have it, a young gentleman of another
party on board, in the full uniform of a very great yacht club, with
brass buttons enough to sink him, stepping quickly to get out of the
wet, tumbled holus-bolus, head and heels, into a barrel of water I had
been coopering, and being a short man, was soon out of sight, and
nearly drowned before he was rescued. It was the nearest to a casualty
on the _Spray_ in her whole course, so far as I know. The young man
having come on board with compliments made the mishap most
embarrassing. It had been decided by his club that the _Spray_ could
not be officially recognized, for the reason that she brought no
letters from yacht-clubs in America, and so I say it seemed all the
more embarrassing and strange that I should have caught at least one
of the members, in a barrel, and, too, when I was not fishing for
yachtsmen.

The typical Sydney boat is a handy sloop of great beam and enormous
sail-carrying power; but a capsize is not uncommon, for they carry
sail like vikings. In Sydney I saw all manner of craft, from the smart
steam-launch and sailing-cutter to the smaller sloop and canoe
pleasuring on the bay. Everybody owned a boat. If a boy in Australia
has not the means to buy him a boat he builds one, and it is usually
one not to be ashamed of. The _Spray_ shed her Joseph's coat, the
Fuego mainsail, in Sydney, and wearing a new suit, the handsome
present of Commodore Foy, she was flagship of the Johnstone's Bay
Flying Squadron when the circumnavigators of Sydney harbor sailed in
their annual regatta. They "recognized" the _Spray_ as belonging to "a
club of her own," and with more Australian sentiment than
fastidiousness gave her credit for her record.

Time flew fast those days in Australia, and it was December