flopping about in calms." But when her daughter went on board to see
them off she was horrified at the sight of it--black with coal dust,
manned by Solomon Island "black boys," and just as they stepped on
deck Tin Jack (Jack Buckland[33]) came up the gangway drunk and fell
off into the water. It was pandemonium, but very exciting, and in the
midst of it Mrs. Stevenson was calmly looking after her husband and
keeping up a smiling, courageous face.

[Footnote 33: Tin is the equivalent in the islands for
Mr. Jack Buckland was the living original of Tommy
Haddon in _The Wrecker_.]

As soon as they were at sea Louis recovered, and after stopping off at
Apia for a look at their new property, they went the rounds of the
"low islands," visiting thirty-three in all. Although they confessed
to a certain monotony in these islands, their adventures, of which
Mrs. Stevenson kept a regular diary, were many and exciting. These
notes were written for her husband's benefit, but as it happened that
he made but slight use of them, she prepared them for publication
herself in a volume called _The Cruise of the Janet Nichol_. "This
diary," she says in her preface, "was written under the most adverse
conditions--sometimes on the damp up-turned bottom of a canoe or
whale-boat, sometimes when lying face downward on the burning sands of
the tropic beach, often in copra sheds in the midst of a pandemonium
of noise and confusion, but oftener on board the rolling _Janet_,
whose pet name was the _Jumping Jenny_, but never in comfortable
surroundings."

It was on this voyage, during which they were well tossed about by the
frisky _Janet_, that the ship was set on fire by the spontaneous
combustion of some fireworks in one of the cabins. In the midst of the
excitement some native sailors were seen by Mrs. Stevenson about to
toss overboard a blazing trunk. She stopped them in time and was
thankful to discover that she had saved all her husband's manuscripts.

At the end of the cruise, from which his health did not benefit as
much as had been hoped, they returned to Sydney, meeting there a
reception which, while irritating enough at the time, afterwards
afforded them much amusement. They went directly from the ship to the
most fashionable hotel, but, not being known there, their queer
appearance, with their Tokalu buckets, mats, shells, straw hats, etc.,
brought upon them a severe snubbing. Then they went