"Would you like to go down there again?"
"Oh yes!" said Dolly. "They will be a good while at lunch yet. Oh, thank you! I should like so much to go."
The young midshipman took her hand; perhaps he had a little sister at home and the action was pleasant and familiar; it seemed to be both; and led her down the way that took them to the upper gun deck.
"How comes it you are not taking lunch too?" he asked by the way.
"Oh, there are too many of them," said Dolly contentedly. "I don't care. I had a biscuit."
"You don't care for your lunch?"
"Yes, I do, when I'm hungry; but now I would rather see things. I never saw a ship before."
They arrived in the great, gloomy, black gun deck. The midshipman let go Dolly's hand, and she stood and looked along the avenue between the bristling black cannon.
"Now, what is it that you don't understand?" he asked, watching her.
"What are these guns here for?"