Then she had a brisk walk on deck before breakfast, which Uncle Jim's party had at the second table.
Sunday morning—her second day at sea—Irma found a letter by her plate at breakfast.
"It's from Lucy," she cried, turning it over and over.
"A steamer letter," explained Uncle Jim. "Are you such a landlubber as not to know that in these days letters follow you regularly on your voyage?"
A moment later she discerned in a corner, "Care the Purser," and then she broke the seal.
"What news?" asked Uncle Jim, as she finished.
"All you'd expect from a letter written before I left home. I wonder how far we are now," she concluded with a sigh.
"Too far for you to swim back," answered Aunt Caroline, reading her thoughts.
Among the letters that Irma received daily after this, Mahala's was especially entertaining.