"Can you swim, uncle?" asked Rose, clutching at his arm as he took her hand.
"Like a fish. Now then."
"Suppose we go to China."—[Page 74]
"Oh, please hold me very tight till I get there! Why do you have the stern so far away?" and, stifling several squeaks of alarm in her passage, Rose crept to the distant seat, and sat there holding on with both hands and looking as if she expected every wave to bring a sudden shipwreck.
Uncle Alec took no notice of her fear, but patiently instructed her in the art of steering, till she was so absorbed in remembering which was starboard and which larboard, that she forgot to say "Ow!" every time a big wave slapped against the boat.
"Now where shall we go?" she asked, as the wind blew freshly in her face, and a few long, swift strokes sent them half across the little bay.
"Suppose we go to China?"
"Isn't that rather a long voyage?"
"Not as I go. Steer round the Point into the harbor, and I'll give you a glimpse of China in twenty minutes or so."