"Yes; if they wish to come, they may."

There was scarcely anything the children liked better than to hear the
captain tell of his experiences at sea, and in another moment his own
three. Rosie, Walter, and several of the older people were gathered
around him, expecting quite a treat.

"Quite an audience," he remarked, "and I'm afraid I shall disappoint you
all, for I have no yarn to spin, only a few items of information to give
in regard to other varieties of sharks than are to be found on this
coast.

"The white shark, found in the Mediterranean and the seas of many of the
warmer parts of the world, is the largest and the most feared of any of
the monsters of the deep. One has been caught which was thirty-seven
feet long. It has a hard skin, is grayish-brown above and whitish on the
under side. It has a large head and a big wide mouth armed with a
terrible apparatus of teeth--six rows in the upper jaw, and four in the
lower."

"Did you ever see one, papa?" asked Grace, shuddering.

"Yes, many a one. They will often follow a ship to feed on any animal
matter that may be thrown or fall overboard, and have not unfrequently
followed mine, to the no small disturbance of the sailors, who have a
superstitious belief that it augurs a death on board during the voyage."

"Do you believe it, captain?" queried little Walter.

"No, my boy, certainly not; how should a fish know what is about to