But to have an old comrade amongst us, who could give us all the information we want, and yet not to be able to get a single thing out of him--" "Except a punch in the ribs," suggested Jack.
"Exactly; and a punch that will not let me forget the lubber in a hurry," added Willis, clenching his fist; "but I intend, in the meantime, to keep my weather eye open." A few weeks after this episode the _Hoboken_ was slowly wending her way along the bights of the Bahamas.

Fritz, Jack, and Willis were walking and chatting on the quarter-deck.

The sky was of a deep azure.
The sea was covered with herbs and flowers as far as the eye could reach--sometimes in compact masses of several miles in extent, and at other times in long straight ribbons, as regular as if they had been spread by some West Indian Le Notre.

The ship seemed merely displaying her graces in the sunshine, so gentle was she moving in the water.

The air was laden with perfumes, and a soft dreamy languor stole over the friends, which they were trying in vain to shake off.