rried her down to Blythe's stateroom, where she was snugly tucked
away in the gently rocking cradle of the lower berth.

As for Blythe, thus relegated to the upper berth, she entered promptly
into an agreeable dreamland, where she found herself speaking Italian
fluently, and where she discovered, to her extreme satisfaction, that
the Queen of Italy was her bosom friend!

CHAPTER III

A NEW DAWN

It was pretty to see the little Signorina revive under the favouring
influences of prosperity; and indeed the soft airs of the southern
seas were never sweeter nor more caressing than those which came to
console our voyagers for their short-lived storm.

Life was full of interest and excitement for the little girl. The
heavy lassitude of her steerage days had fallen from her, and already
that first morning a delicate glow of returning vigour touched the
little cheek.

"She's picking up, isn't she?" Mr. DeWitt remarked, as he joined
Blythe and the child at the head of the steerage gangway, where the
little one was throwing enthusiastic kisses and musical Italian
phrases down upon the hardly less radiant Giuditta.

"Oh, yes!" was the confident reply. "She's a different child since her
saltwater bath and her big bowl of oatmeal. Mamma says she really has
a splendid physique, only she was smothering down there in the
steerage."

Then Mr. DeWitt stooped and, lifting the child, set her on the
railing, where she could get a better view of her faithful friend
below.

"There! How do you like that?" he inquired.

Upon which the little girl, finding herself unexpectedly on a level
with Blythe's face, put up her tiny hand and stroked her cheek.

"Like-a Signorina," she remarked with apparent irrelevance.

"Oh! You do, do you? Well, she's a nice girl."

"Nice-a girl-a," the child repeated, adding a vowel, Italian fashion,
to each word.

Then, with an appreciative look into the pleasant, whiskered
countenance, whose owner was holding her so securely on her
precarious perch, she pressed her little hand gently against his
waistcoat, and gravely remarked, "Nice-a girl-a, _anche il Signore_!"

"So! I'm a nice girl too, am I?" the old gentleman replied, much
elated with the compliment.

And Giuditta, down below, perceiving that her Signorina was making new
conquests, snatched her bright handkerchief from her head, and waved
it gaily; whereupon a score of the steerage passengers, seized with
her enthusiasm, waved their