"And sail for Jamaica?" she exclaimed.

"Oh, yes," he said, with an affectionate smile, "and I will leave you
with your Uncle Delaplaine, where you can stay while I make some little
cruises here and there."

"And so I am really to go?" she exclaimed, her eyes sparkling.

"Really to go," said he.

"And what may I pack up?" she asked, thinking of her step-mother.

"Not much," he said, "not much. We will be able to find at Spanish Town
something braver in the way of apparel than anything you now possess. It
will be some days before we sail, and I shall have quietly conveyed on
board such belongings as you need."

She was very happy, and she laughed.

"Yours will be an easily laden ship," said she, "for you take in with
you no great store of goods for traffic. But I suppose you design to
pick up your cargo among the islands where you cruise, and at a less
cost, perchance, than it could be procured here?"

"Yes, yes," he said; "you have hit it fairly, my little girl, you have
hit it fairly."

New annoyances now began to beset Major Bonnet. What his daughter had
remarked in pleasantry, the people of the town began to talk about