him some trouble on the
twist of a word; and the good botanist seemed pleased that I had come.
How different things are in different countries! In Boston,
Massachusetts, at that time, a gentleman, so I was told, paid thirty
thousand dollars to have a flower named after his wife, and it was not
a big flower either, while "Slocum," which came without the asking,
was bigger than a mangel-wurzel!

I was royally entertained at Moka, as well as at Reduit and other
places--once by seven young ladies, to whom I spoke of my inability to
return their hospitality except in my own poor way of taking them on a
sail in the sloop. "The very thing! The very thing!" they all cried.
"Then please name the time," I said, as meek as Moses. "To-morrow!"
they all cried. "And, aunty, we may go, mayn't we, and we'll be real
good for a whole week afterward, aunty! Say yes, aunty dear!" All this
after saying "To-morrow"; for girls in Mauritius are, after all, the
same as our girls in America; and their dear aunt said "Me, too" about
the same as any really good aunt might say in my own country.

I was then in a quandary, it having recurred to me that on the very
"to-morrow" I was to dine with the harbor-master, Captain Wilson.
However, I said to myself, "The _Spray_ will run out quickly into
rough seas; these young ladies will have _mal de mer_ and a good time,
and I'll get in early enough to be at the dinner, after all." But not
a bit of it. We sailed almost out of sight of Mauritius, and they just
stood up and laughed at seas tumbling aboard, while I was at the helm
making the worst weather of it I could, and spinning yarns to the aunt
about sea-serpents and whales. But she, dear lady, when I had finished
with stories of monsters, only hinted at a basket of provisions they
had brought along, enough to last a week, for I had told them about my
wretched steward.

The more the _Spray_ tried to make these young ladies seasick, the
more they all clapped their hands and said, "How lovely it is!" and
"How beautifully she skims over the sea!" and "How beautiful our
island appears from the distance!" and they still cried, "Go on!" We
were fifteen miles or more at sea before they ceased the eager cry,
"Go on!" Then the sloop swung round, I still hoping to be back to Port
Louis in time to keep my appointment. The _Spray_ reached the island
quickly, and flew along the coast fast enough; but I made a mistake in
steering along the coast on the way home, f