and, as it is not a bad one, I see no good reason why I should not
introduce myself to the reader as Ralph Rover. My shipmates were
kind, good-natured fellows, and they and I got on very well
together. They did, indeed, very frequently make game of and
banter me, but not unkindly; and I overheard them sometimes saying
that Ralph Rover was a "queer, old-fashioned fellow." This, I must
confess, surprised me much, and I pondered the saying long, but
could come at no satisfactory conclusion as to that wherein my old-
fashionedness lay. It is true I was a quiet lad, and seldom spoke
except when spoken to. Moreover, I never could understand the
jokes of my companions even when they were explained to me: which
dulness in apprehension occasioned me much grief; however, I tried
to make up for it by smiling and looking pleased when I observed
that they were laughing at some witticism which I had failed to
detect. I was also very fond of inquiring into the nature of
things and their causes, and often fell into fits of abstraction
while thus engaged in my mind. But in all this I saw nothing that
did not seem to be exceedingly natural, and could by no means
understand why my comrades should call me "an old-fashioned
fellow."

Now, while engaged in the coasting trade, I fell in with many
seamen who had travelled to almost every quarter of the globe; and
I freely confess that my heart glowed ardently within me as they
recounted their wild adventures in foreign lands, - the dreadful
storms they had weathered, the appalling dangers they had escaped,
the wonderful creatures they had seen both on the land and in the
sea, and the interesting lands and strange people they had visited.
But of all the places of which they told me, none captivated and
charmed my imagination so much as the Coral Islands of the Southern