tongue-tied with women. But at last ceremony was over, and we
sat on the table and swung our legs and agreed to be fast
friends. And I showed her my latest knife--one-bladed, horn-
handled, terrific, hung round my neck with string; and she showed
me the chiefest treasures the ship contained, hidden away in a
most private and particular locker--a musical box with a glass
top that let you see the works, and a railway train with
real lines and a real tunnel, and a tin iron-clad that followed a
magnet, and was ever so much handier in many respects than the
real full-sized thing that still lay and applauded in the offing.

There was high feasting that night in my cabin. We invited the
captain of the man-of-war--one could hardly do less, it seemed to
me--and the Princess took one end of the table and I took the
other, and the captain was very kind and nice, and told us fairy-
stories, and asked us both to come and stay with him next
Christmas, and promised we should have some hunting, on real
ponies. When he left I gave him some ingots and things, and saw
him into his boat; and then I went round the ship and addressed
the crew in several set speeches, which moved them deeply, and
with my own hands loaded up the carronade with grape-shot till it
ran over at the mouth. This done, I retired into the cabin
with the Princess, and locked the door. And first we started the
musical box, taking turns to wind it up; and then we made toffee
in the cabin-stove; and then we ran the train round and round the
room, and through and through the tunnel; and lastly we swam the
tin ironclad in the bath, with the soap-dish for a pirate.

Next morning the air was rich with spices, porpoises rolled and
gambolled round the bows, and the South Sea Islands lay full in