nds in great concern about him, and Mr. Sutherland
actually organising a party to go in search of him.

They were considerably amused at his story, and thereafter he had to
endure many a joke in regard to his supposed fondness for pork.

Leaving the lovely islands with good stores of fruit, fresh provisions,
and water, the _Bonnie Scotland_ pursued her way westward through storm
and {50} calm until the drawing near of the New World was announced by
tropical things that came out to meet her on the bosom of the deep.

Thenceforward every eye scanned eagerly the horizon, and Donalblane
spent most of his time high up the mainmast, it being his ambition to
be the first among the passengers to sight the land. Mr. Paterson,
whose kindly interest in the boy had increased during the voyage,
promised him a golden guinea if he did sight land first, and this of
course intensified his desire.

His patience was sorely tried, for when the ship reached the dreaded
Sargasso Sea her onward progress was checked for many a weary day by
the provoking seaweed which held her fast.

"I'm afraid you'll not soon win your guinea, Donald," said Mr.
Sutherland, after they had been apparently motionless for several days.
"We're bound to stay where we are until a strong wind is good enough to
spring up and help us out."

But the wind seemed in no hurry to come, and the gulf-weed kept them
prisoners until at last something in the nature of a hurricane struck
the _Bonnie Scotland_, and she scudded helplessly before it under bare
poles for a whole day, her passengers' impatience to sight land being
for the time replaced by a lively fear of foundering.

In spite of being so poor a craft, however, the _Bonnie Scotland_
braved out the peril, and the following morning Donalblane, who had
taken to the mast as soon as he had swallowed his breakfast, made the
hearts of all on deck thrill with joy by the cry of--

"The land! the land! I can see it! Look! Look!"

An instant later the look-out at the bow confirmed him by shouting--

"Land ho! on the weather bow!" and the ship-wearied folk forgot for the
moment their mutual animosities which had abounded during the long
voyage, and rejoiced together that the end of their trials was at hand.

"Here's your guinea, my lad," said Mr. Paterson, as he handed
Donalblane a bright new coin. "You've earned it well, and I hope that
good fortune may always befall you."

As Donalblane thanked his kind friend