Honolulu friends, and three more for the
ladies, after which we were driven to the hotel and thence to-the
steamer, which was to sail at ten o'clock. At the dock another great
crowd had assembled to see us off, and as we swung out to sea there came
to our ears the sweet strains of the "Aloha" song, from the members of
the Royal Band, growing fainter and fainter as the distance between the
steamer and the shore increased, until at last it died away altogether
as we rounded the headlands, and it was heard no more.

CHAPTER XXII. FROM HONOLULU TO AUSTRALIA.

The majority of our party, and among them Mrs. Anson and myself,
remained upon the deck that evening chatting of the many beautiful
things that we had seen and gazing in the direction of the
fast-vanishing islands until they were at last lost to sight behind the
mystic veil of the moonlight, and then we sought our stateroom to dream
of the wonderful sights that were yet to come. There was now an ocean
trip of 3,900 miles before us, before we should set foot on shore at New
Zealand, and with never a stop between save a brief wait for the mail at
the Samoan Islands. We were all pretty fair sailors by this time, having
become used to the motion of the vessel, and so the long voyage had for
us no terror, though we could not help but hope that the sea would
remain as smooth as it had been up to that time, and that we should
encounter no storms before reaching our destination.

How to keep the members of the two teams in anything like good condition
for playing had been a problem with me for several days and one that I
had spent some time in studying over during the first week of our
voyage. The boys were all getting restless for lack of active exercise,
and it was plain to me that something would have tot, be done or they
would be in no condition when Australia was reached to do themselves or
the country that, they represented justice.

"See here, George," I said to Wright the afternoon after we had left
Honolulu, as we were sitting beside the steamer rail and looking across
the blue expanse of waters, "this sort of a life will never do for
American ballplayers who expect to exploit the beauties of the game in
foreign lands. We shall be as stiff as old women and as fat as a lot of
aldermen by the time we reach Australia unless we take exercise of some
kind during the voyage. Can't we manage to get some cricket practice in
some way?"

George thought we could do so,