.

We had been seven weeks in the island.

We had promised to be back in England, if possible, within the three months; and we had a certain pride in keeping our promise, not only for its own sake, but for the sake of the dear West Indies.

We wished to show those at home how easy it was to get there; how easy to get home again.

Moreover, though going to sea in the Shannon was not quite the same 'as going to sea in a sieve,' our stay-at-home friends were of the same mind as those of the dear little Jumblies, whom Mr.Lear has made immortal in his New Book of Nonsense; and we were bound to come back as soon as possible, and not 'in twenty years or more,' if we wished them to say-- 'If we live, We too will go to sea in a sieve, To the Hills of the Chankly bore.' So we left.