“That is all.  You have followed me?  Good again!” And once more the professor sat down, and the big arm-chair seemed to swallow him up.

* * * * *

Ara and Pansy lay awake a long time that night thinking of what Pete had said.  But the next day they went about their duties as usual.  They did not go to school, as they had a governess, of whom they were both very fond.  Nearly half their day would be spent out-of-doors with her and Veevee.  In spring and summer they would gather flowers inland, but what they liked best was to play about on the sands, to go out boating with an old seaman they knew, or climb the rocks and get into very steep and giddy places.

[Illustration]

Poor Frank Dunlop was an orphan, and was now the adopted son of Ara’s father.  As for Tom, who was a year or two older, his father had wanted him to go into business at home in England, but nothing would satisfy the lad but going to sea, so he had been sent to rough it with his uncle in the stormy seas of the Frozen North.  The cruise now ended was his second, and Tom wasn’t tired of the sea yet.

Frank went back to school, and appeared no more at the cottage until Christmas came round.  Then not only Uncle, but Pete and Briton came to spend a whole fortnight with the Dunlop family, and to make their final plans for the spring.  And I should say that no fortnight seemed to pass so quickly to the children as did the two weeks when their visitors stayed with them.

At last, one day in early spring, there left Hull on a trial trip one of the handsomest little steamers, and, for her size, one of the strongest that ever put to sea from that port.  She was Captain Staysail’s new ship, the Valhalla.  Everything on board, both on deck and between decks, and in the saloon, was as clean and beautiful as if she had been a royal yacht.  The decks were as white as ivory, the polished wood shone in the sun, and the brass-work looked like gold.  The saloon itself, with its curtains, its mirrors, tables pillars, and piano, was really fit for a fairy princess to live in.  Everything had been prepared under the eye of Professor Peterkin himself, so everything was perfect in its way.

Pansy, who was on board, and had been peeping in some of the rooms, said to Aralia at last:  “Oh, Aralia, what a dear little doll’s house of a cabin; I should like to live in it always!”

Neither of the children was sea-sick when the Valhalla went out under steam, and they had such fun with the sailors and the two dogs that they were quite sorry when the ship once more steamed into port.

And didn’t everybody sleep soundly that night in the hotel!  I should say so!

CHAPTER II

The merry month of May had hardly begun when the brave Valhalla steamed away on her perilous cruise to the far and icy north.