I

OVER THE OCEAN


"Dear me," said Polly, "I don't see wherever she can be, Jasper. I've
searched just everywhere for her." And she gave a little sigh, and
pushed up the brown rings of hair under her sailor cap.

"Don't worry, Polly," said Jasper, with a reassuring smile. "She's with
Matilda, of course. Come, Polly, let's you and I have a try at the
shuffle-board by ourselves, down on the lower deck."

"No, we can't," said Polly, with a dreadful longing at her heart for
the charms of a game; "that is, until we've found Phronsie." And she
ran down the deck. "Perhaps she is in one of the library corners,
though I thought I looked over them all."

"How do you know she isn't with Matilda, Polly?" cried Jasper, racing
after, to see Polly's little blue jacket whisking ahead of him up the
companion-way.

"Because"--Polly stopped at the top and looked over her shoulder at
him--"Matilda's in her berth. She's awfully seasick. I was to stay with
Phronsie, and now I've lost her!" And the brown head drooped, and Polly
clasped her hands tightly together.