Evening star., 1922-12-31

them backward Peter hummed over
her repertoire Of songs, or thought
out new dishes for her weeks cook
ment. AS for me. I kept a MARLIN
spike handy, and when oblivion
threatened used 1t.
X X X r
1T will be seen that a dream ship is
i not all dreams II 1t were. such is
the perversity of human nature. the
dreamer would probably he tired OF
it within a month.
But stark calmS are a wearisome
business. Every function of ship
has ceased. 1t is as though she lay
dead in a stagnant pool, and any
movement of spars or canvas were
the rafting Of her bones. Also. it Is
an aggravation to the restless in
sect called man. adrift in a breath
less waste of waters. to know that
leagues lie ahead of which he Is In
capable of covering a yard. I
An auxiliary engine Is useless un3
Ger such circumstances. To use II -
like hurrying on to catch a tram tina:
run. What is steaming radius OF
four hundred miles in a stretch OF
three thousand? No. all one can do.
after satisfying himself that his ves-
sci is 'as idle as painted ship upon
a painted sea-" is to pass the time as
pleasantly as may be. We OF the
dream ship turned in and slept. or
broke the uncanny silence with fear
some noises on clarionet and plano.
Also. we hshed. though with lack
of success that leads me to believe
that fish do not bite in midocean. At
night flying fish struck the mainsail
and fell to the deck with 4 resound-
ing thwack and a f1utter Of wings"
but for the most part on occasions
; when we had failed to hang a Ian
tern in the rigging to attract. them.
which. as far as I am concerned, ex-
plodes another .fallacy.
As day succeeded day. and there
was no sign of a change in our inert
condition. our thoughts turned again
| in the direction of the drinking
water. True, we had two hundred gal
Ions aboard. but what was to prevent
us from being becalmed for a month.
or being carried hundreds OF miles
out of our course by a gale. according
to the mood Of the capricious ele-
ments? We cut our daily allowance
from a gallon to half O gallon per
head for all purposes and. as though
in response to our frugality. breath
came out of the southeast.
At the moment of its arrival Steve
and I happened to be testing our
sense of direction by diving over
board and trying to come up through
lifebelt floating about ten yards
distant Steve had just conceived the
brilliant idea of moving the belt after
the diver had taken the plunge. and
1 had emerged from a lung-racking
effort to locate it, when we realized
that the dream ship had moved. In
fact was still moving. with a notice.
able wake in the direction OF the
horizon. The tiller was pegged amid
ships, and there was nothing to stop
her continuing the motion indefinitely
except Peter, who was below. We
prayed In that hour that she was not
| asleep.
have often left home-perhaps too
! often-but this was the first occasion
on which home looked as il 1t were
leaving. me. and in mid-Atlantic at
that. Alternately we yelled and
SWAN, but without gaining foot
until to our infinite relief a small,
pajamaed figure appeared on deck.
threw up its arms in horror. and
brought the dream ship into the
wind. -
An hour later We were bowling
along at seven knots, reveiins in the
blessed motion Of air, and planning
what we should do when we reached
barbados, q mere fifteen hundred
miles distant.
WHAT with weather ranging all the
w way from stark Gains to vi
cious squalls. and a correspondingly
varied progress of anything from ten