The Cruise of the Dainty | Page 7

ready.
The next morning Dick presented himself so changed for the better in
appearance, that Harry scarcely knew him. He looked a fine, intelligent
sailor lad, and at once began to make himself useful in carrying down
our things to the boat: most of our heavier luggage had been sent on
board the previous evening. Mr Humby came off in a shore boat.
While our own boat was being hoisted in, my brother gave his last
directions.
"I'll do my best, Mr Harry, and I pray that you may have a successful
voyage, and when you return find all things going on well," he said, as
he shook hands with us all.
The anchor was then hove up, and sail being made, we stood out of the
harbour, while Mr Humby returned on shore, waving his last adieus.
The first part of our voyage was uneventful. We had fine weather, a fair
wind, and a smooth sea, and the ladies soon got accustomed to their life
on board, declaring that it was even more pleasant than they had
expected, though they should like occasionally to get sight of some of
the beautiful islands of the Pacific, of which they had so often heard.
We left New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands on our port side, then
steered to the north between the New Hebrides and the Fiji Islands, at
neither of which my brother wished to touch.
Day after day we sailed on without sighting land, and at last Emily
exclaimed, "What has become of the islands we have heard so much
about? I thought we should not pass a day without seeing several of
them. They appear on the chart to be very close together, like the
constellations in the sky."
"But if you will measure off on the chart the distances they are apart,
you will easily understand how it is we have sailed so far without

seeing them," said Harry.
The very next day, as Fanny was looking over the starboard side, Harry
pointed out to her several blue hillocks rising out of the ocean, which
he told her were the northern islands of Fiji, the habitation of a
dark-skinned race, once the most notorious cannibals in the Pacific.
"I am very glad to keep away from them, then," answered Fanny, "for I
shouldn't at all like to run the risk of being captured and eaten."
"Not much chance of that," said Harry. "The larger number of them
have given up their bad habits, and promise to become as civilised as
any of the people in these seas."
"Still, I would rather not go near their shores," said Fanny.
She little thought at the time that there were many other islands in
every direction, the inhabitants of which were quite as savage as those
of Fiji had been.
From the first, Tom Platt had taken a fancy to Dick, who had hitherto
behaved himself remarkably well.
"We'll make a seaman of the lad, if he only sticks to it," he said to me.
"The rope's-endings, as he tells me he used to get aboard the Eclipse,
did him a world of good, though he didn't think so."
I always treated Dick in a friendly way, though he was before the mast,
and I was glad to find that he did not presume on this, but willingly did
whatever he was ordered. Tom had had a hammock slung for Dick near
his berth away from the men, whose conversation, he said, was not
likely to do him any good.
Our life on board was very regular; Tom and I kept watch and watch,
the crew being divided between us, while Harry, as captain, was on
deck at all hours whenever he thought it necessary.
CHAPTER TWO.

The calm which I described at the commencement of my narrative had
continued for many hours, and when the sun sank beneath the horizon
there was not the slightest sign of a coming breeze. It was my first
watch, and before Harry went below he charged me to keep a careful
look-out, and to call him should there be any sign of a change of
weather. The schooner still floated motionless on the water; scarcely a
sound was heard, except the cheeping of the main boom, and the low
voices of the men forward, as they passed the watch spinning their
oft-told yarns to each other.
I slowly paced the deck, enjoying the comparative coolness of the night,
after the intense heat of the day. The stars in the southern hemisphere
were shining brilliantly overhead, reflected in the mirror-like ocean.
The watch at length were silent, and had apparently dropped off to
sleep, though I could see the figure of the man on the look-out as he
paced up and down or leaned over