CORAL ISLANDS AND CORAL. 267

emerald in a dissolving sea. Rick was puzzled about the equator.
“Won't we find it hot when we cross the equator, Uncle Nat?”
“Oh, perhaps not. The sun may be clouded, you know. What
do you think the equator is, a kind of red hot line stretching through
the water, and sizzling all the way, Rick?”
Rick could not say.
When his uncle told him one morning that they had crossed the

equator, he felt quite disturbed to think he had been ignorant of it,
and that the event had passed off so quietly.

“We did not melt, surely,” said Uncle Nat; “and on the other hand
-we had quite a cool wind to keep us company.”

How the wind did blow a few days after that! Siah had occasion ~
to remember the uneasy sea that
came with it. He had been assist-
ing Bumble-bee, who was getting
up a special dinner—a chowder.
Rick took a fancy to it, and as he
said he could not wait for dinner,
being “awful hungry,” Siah with
the air of a grandpa, had told
him: “Chile, you shall have a
bowlful forehand.” = -

He filled a bowl and started
for the cabin. On the way he
heard Bumble-bee’s voice calling

 

him back. Settimg his bowl on a
little shelf outside the forward
house, and sniffing at its contents, he began talking to -himself:

“SUTHIN’S COMIN”? — AND SUTHIN’ CAME.

“Jes say to de cap’n dar’s suthin’ nice comin’ to-day, Siah.”
“Suthin’ -nice comin’,” he repeated, and was about reaching

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