walking, some leaning idly on the rail, some sitting with books in their
hands. A few were reading, but most sat with finger in closed book. Why
bother to read _about_ life when it could be seen so full and
interesting all around.

A day on ship-board is longer than one on shore, and provision must be
made to pass it pleasantly. If the weather is fair, this is quite a
problem. Of course, there are the meals in the well-appointed dining
saloon. They break pleasantly into the long monotony. Then there are the
deck games; the watching for "whales" and passing vessels; the looking
at the spinning log in the foaming water at the stern; the marking of
the chart, which indicates the distance traversed during the twenty-four
hours; the visit to the steerage and the "stoke hole," or boiler room in
the depths of the ship; and last, but not least, the getting acquainted
with one's fellow passengers. "Steamer friendships" are easily made, and
in most cases, soon forgotten. The little world of people speeding
across the deep from shore to shore, is bound together closely for a few
days, and then, its inhabitants scatter.

Chester Lawrence was enjoying every hour of the voyage. On that day
practically all sea-sickness had gone. The vacant places at the tables
were being filled and the company looked around at each other with
pleasant contentment. The steamship company no longer saved on the
provisions. The chatty old gentleman at Chester's right was back again
after a short absence, and the power of speech had come to the demure
lady on his left, with the return of her appetite.

Two places opposite Chester were still vacant at the table. That day as
the crowd hastily answered the dinner gong, Chester, being a little
tardy, encountered an elderly man and what appeared to be his daughter